Duck Coop is an Easy Pull 2022

We have the duck coop up and running.  The tarp is flimsy and we have a better tarp ordered. But for now, the ducks seem quite happy in their new space.  They have a little more space.  The pull pen is 36 sq. ft, and this duck pen is 50 sq. ft., including their raised bed area.  They are up off the ground, with a mat and hay to help with warmth. I have the brooder warmer in there too until they have all their feathers.  Their down is being pushed out by the new feathers, so they look especially fuzzy now.  They are about 14 inches tall and I would guess that they weigh about three to four pounds each. Their wings are getting longer and their little peeps are becoming more like deeper quacks. The ducks are four weeks old. 

I needed to get some photos of the ones I'm selling, so they got a bath, a blow dry, and some pix taken.  They don't like to be handled, but they are becoming more tolerant of it. I'm amazed at how sharp their little toe nails are. Like mini talons! 

I also took some photos of the newer pullets that are out in their coop being integrated with the two Faverolles and the one remaining Rhode Island.  The remaining hens are great layers.  The pullets should start to lay eggs the end of July or first of August.  They will be 19 to 20 weeks then and so we will be living on the few eggs we get from the current layers, or the ones we have left in the fridge. The pullets that we kept are, one Rhode Island, one Barred Rock, one Lavender Orpington, one Black Copper Maran, and two Silver Laced Wyandottes.  They are all really very pretty birds.  At the moment, their tails are a tad frayed from being chased by the hens, but they are getting braver and starting to stand their ground. 

The meat chicks are seven weeks today, and we were hoping some would be large enough to process.  But no such luck.  With the much cooler temps, I think a lot of their energy goes into staying warmer this year.  I'm fairly certain that they will be big enough next week. If they are not all big enough, we will hold a few back for one more week. 

And that's our bird update for end of May. 

Ruby is a Rooster.... And Garden Notes for May 2022

We rarely end up with roosters, but this year, we got two. The Australorp that was showing it's rooster traits early, and now the Easter Egger that has started to crow in the mornings, afternoons, evenings... whenever it is so inclined to crow.  Especially now that the pullets are a long ways away. He has calmed down, also, now that they are no longer nearby. He's a very handsome guy. 

Today's Photo of the Easter Egger Rooster

The May 1st Photo of the Easter Egger - Didn't Know that he was a he.

The ducks at three weeks are settling into this outdoor life.  The sunshine days are the best. But we still have the brooder warmer set up out in the corner of their pen (you can see it in one of the photos) that they will go to when they are feeling insecure. But, mostly, they are enjoying their environment.  I have been trying to find a treat that they like. I tried scratch, but that was not a hit. I tried peas, and one liked the peas, but none of the others seemed to care for them. Today, I chopped up some baby green spinach. That was a hit. They all dug into that one. No bread. I have read bread is not good for them. I think I will try to buy some live mealworms from the pet store to see if they will eat those. We just need to find the right treats so we can start training them to respond to us by using treats. I can try some canned corn (no salt) to see if they will eat that. It hasn't been warm enough out to have them go for a swim. We would need to do the bathtub again with warm water and use a hair dryer afterwards to do the quick dry before taking them back outside. 

The pullets and the three hens are adjusting to one another. Some of the pullets are roosting on the same bar as the hens, so that's a good sign. We have three feed stations and two water stations set up at the moment to cut down on their station wars. But, all in all, they are settling into the coop routine. 

Not going to do as much gardening this year.  I planted 21 hills of potatoes this year.  I think we will be getting a lot more summer rains so I have a dome with plastic over it to help minimize the too wet factor for the potatoes. And so it goes.  I found some interesting bulbs in the garden that I think are garlic starts left from the fried garlic of last year's heat period. I could be wrong, but I think they are garlic.  I transplanted them into the garden space next to the garlic that I planted last fall. We shall see what comes of it.  

I have the garden patch covered with a black tarp to kill weeds in the corn patch. That's pretty much all that's happening at the moment. No tomatoes or bell peppers this year. 

Two Week Old Indian Runner Ducklings

 They truly are growing faster than I even imagined.  Now, I won't say that they grow faster than our Cornish Cross chicks, but they are growing faster than our average chicks. At two weeks, they are about 8 inches tall without stretching.... which they do that a lot, too.  We have two 15 chick warmers in their brooder to handle the eight of them.  They splash their drinking water EVERYWHERE and keeping that contained is a regular chore.  No amount of shavings at this point, keeps their floor dry.  We have rubber mats and use those to lift and dispose of the shavings, then we hose them down and replace them with dry rubber mats topped with shavings. We tried using grass hay under their warmers this time, but they just wanted to eat the grass, so we made certain that there is plenty of grit available for them to help with digestion. 

We had another swim day.  The moment they hit the water, they poop. I am assuming it is an instinct? Once they get swimming, they dive and splash and generally make a lot of happy peeps. They don't "quack" but sound more like baby chicks than ducks. 

Because water is an issue in their brooder, we hang their food now so that it doesn't get as wet.  Can't remember if I mentioned that we are adding Brewer's Yeast to Organic Chick Feed.  1.5 Tablespoons per 1 cup of feed is what we were advised. They seem strong and I don't notice any wobbly legs, which is what the niacin from the Brewer's Yeast is supposed to help with healthy bone development.  So, I take a half gallon canning jar, fill it with six cups of feed, pour in a half cup of Brewers Yeast, and shake, shake, shake until it is all mixed in. That is three pounds of feed that lasts for a few days for eight peeping ducklings. 

The water in the tub was not very deep.... at any point that they wanted, they could stop swimming and stand up, which they did every so often. Yesterday, they were two weeks old. I've noticed a few feathers coming in on their tails.  

These Photos were taken after toweling them off from their swim.  They were more alert and did better with the photos after swimming than before swimming. Go Figure? 

No Joke - Ducks Grow FAST

 I swear the ducks are already twice as tall as when they arrived. They went for their first real swim today with a towel ready to dry them off before they got too cold.  I used tepid water for them.  The back end of the tub was shallow enough for them to stand if they wanted.  They were not too enthused when I first put them in, and they all huddled in the back corner trying to get out of the water/tub. I tried a large bowl in the tub first, but they were having nothing to do with that, and beside, even a large bowl was not big enough for all eight at once. 

So filled the tub and placed them in one by one as they squawked loudly that they were not having fun! But in a matter of minutes, they were swimming, and diving, and acting like ducks to water. 

So, the pullets are being pullets.  One of the three Easter Eggers was really acting out, and I'm wondering if it is a pain response to refeathering.  The whole back side of her is missing feathers, and the feathers are just starting to push through. I know that can be an unpleasant feeling for chickens when so many are coming back in at the same time. I also was not certain whether it might be a male trying to show dominance, but the telltale signs are not quite there.  An early pink comb does not always mean it is a rooster. The Easter Egger certainly is not as aggressive as the Australorp was.  Just very flighty and didn't like other birds getting close. I have put her into the dog cage now, and I can tell she misses being with her girls, but at the same time, they are talking with one another through the wire, so it's not like she is totally out of the chicken life loop.  

I did try putting a chicken apron on her, but she was even more distressed by that thing chasing her around the pen.  She was literally throwing herself against the wire in an attempt to get the darned thing off her back. I didn't want her to hurt herself or the others in her frenzy.  I figured everyone would be safer if she was in a separate space while her feathers heal. And, then we can start to determine whether or not she is a he. 

A person called me today looking for pullets, which I just don't have anymore to sell.  I have six or seven for my own flock from the 30 something that we started.  I don't want to part with the few remaining that I have.  So I offered up four of my current layers. They may be going to a new home this weekend. I didn't plan to start selling the layers until June, but we will still have five layers in addition to the few pullets we still have. If we have any layers left after June, we can start to integrate the pullets with the hens for the next laying season. 

Ducks Running with More Space

 The ducks are three days old today and true to their name, they love to run around. We cleaned out the new brooder, giving them lots of space now to run.  They seem to like to wipe their wet bills on the wall, so there are wet smears on the walls in the background. They splash the water so there are water droplets on them in some of the photos. Just like with chicks, they are difficult to catch crisp photos without some level of motion. They are quivering all the time even if they are not cold, they just seem to shake when they take a bite of food, shake when they drink water, and shake with they are interacting. They don't spend as much time under the warmer as chicks do, but when they are ready to warm up, they know to go there and they find the area that meets their warming needs. There is still plenty of room for them with only eight under my smaller warmer that will warm up to 15 chicks at a time. I have it tilted so they can find the right height for their needs. 

We plan to keep one of each color, Fawn, Blue (Gray), Black, and Chocolate, and sell the rest, if we can.  

Update on Hemp Shavings/Bedding for Cornish Cross Chicks

 Using Hemp Shavings from the start was actually a smashing success.  

Typically, baby chicks (particularly Cornish Cross) will gobble wood shavings which causes digestive issues and contributes to pasty butt. In the past, our first week of Cornish Cross involved changing out cloth covering on the floor of the brooder every day, and washing those poopy sheets, which I would not so affectionately call, "Sh!tSheets." Stinky and messy, but it made a huge difference in our chicks' survival rate.  Once they figured out Food, a little more than a week later, we would put them on the shavings, and change that out every few days.  It is a lot of work staying ahead of the wet, dirty shavings, and the smell.  

We started using hemp shavings last fall for our layers. They seemed fine with it.  It does have a different smell to it than the aspen shavings (our preferred shavings). The smell is not overpowering, and does not seem to impact the hens.  So we tried it this year with our layer pullets.  We did start them on the sheets, like usual, and transitioned them fairly quickly onto the shavings (about three days in).  With Layer Chicks, even on the sheets, we still experience some level of pasty butt (usually just a chick or two) during the first week, but that can be caused from other health issues and potential dehydration caused from shipment from the hatcheries over the span of a few days. As soon as we were certain that the pasty butt problems were done, we moved them onto the hemp shavings and they did great.  

Several weeks later, our meat chicks (Cornish Cross) showed up and so we decided to do a bit of an experiment.  Because Cornish Cross grow twice as fast as layer chicks, we decided to put them directly onto the hemp shavings on the first day. They did great. No Pasty Butts out of 25 chicks, and no deaths in the first week or two. The hemp does a much better job of regulating the smell and is much more absorbent than the wood shavings, so we were able to go a full week on the hemp without changing anything out.  As they got bigger, we did need it change it more often, but it was still not as frequent as we would need to do with the aspen shavings. Seems to be more cost effective, but also labor effective. 

This year, another thing we did differently was to use large square puppy pee pads under the shavings (and under the sheet).  This also helped a lot.  The pee pads are fairly inexpensive, and we actually were able to use them multiple times by shaking them out and putting them back down.  Just make certain that the plastic edges are folded back under the pad so that the chicks don't peck at them. 

All in all, the hemp (and the pee pad) experience has been a more productive and effective process for our chicks, and now ducks. If you are wondering how much I'm paying for the hemp, I look for the large bales (about 25 to 30 pounds) and have been paying about $2 per pound with shipping and handling included in that price.  I have yet to be able to find any feed or pet stores in the area that sell it.  I keep asking around.  I have found a local source just outside of our major town that hemp is their sole business called Hemp Solutions. But since I'm stocked up with several hundred pounds of hemp shavings, I will wait until I have used that up before I contact that company to see how their prices compare. 

New To The Duck World 2022

 So yah, we are trying a new adventure this year, partly for pest control, but also for eggs and entertainment. We picked up eight 2-day old ducks that are all supposed to be females.  I've been told that, unlike Turkeys, you can comingle your female (hens) ducks and chickens without any issues.  The only problems are if you have drakes (males) with hen chickens. So, we chose all females, at least to start with to see what comes of this.  Ducks are much better than chickens at pest control. Ducks love slugs and other bugs, which we have a lot of "both." 

So, we are into day one. Similar to day old chicks, ducklings need extra heat for the first few weeks.  About 90F ambient heat. Just like with our chicks, we are using a brooder warmer in lieu of a heat lamp. At first, I thought, "oh no" they aren't going to figure that warmer out.  Well, they are using it now.... it just took a few hours of them wandering under and back out before they figured out that it actually is warmer under there.  We read that the warmer base needs to be set higher for ducks so that they can easily walk under it.  I may tilt it a bit so that one side (front) is higher than the back side so that they can snuggle closer to the back with a bit more warmth when they lay down. But, yah, they finally figured it out. 

Water and food.  I have a three pound feeder, just like what I use for my older chicks. But for water, I'm using the feeders that I would typically use for my day old chicks.  I have the quart bottle attached even though there is no water inside of it. The bottle keeps them out of the center so that they don't get totally drenched in the water because they walk right over the top of the waterer, and the feeder, just like chicks. But the holes are perfect for their little heads to scoop up water right after they take a bit of food. They kind of shake and shutter when they scoop up a bite of food until they go over to the water to wash it down, then they kind of shake again, after the food goes down.  It is interesting.  We will need to fill the base of the makeshift waterer several times per day since it only holds about a half cup of water and ducks drink a lot more water than chicks. Also, with the food, we don't seem to need to grind down the feed crumbles.  

We are using the same organic chick feed that we raise our pullets on, but we are supplementing that with brewer's yeast for the vitamins, probiotic, and niacin that is contained in the yeast. Everything I have read is that young ducklings need the niacin for bone development and after they are mature, they will get those nutrients from the other things they will eat around the yard. 

Not certain yet whether ducklings struggle with pasty butt caused by stress and dehydration.  Time will tell. 

Day old hatchery ducklings don't have feathers (similar to chicks) and they also don't have the body oils that wild or domestic ducks would get from their Momma Hen Duck. So, even though they can swim at this point, briefly, they don't have the natural water repellant they get when they grow feathers. So, the key is to keep them fairly dry until they have those feathers. But also, they are natural swimmers. A lot of people will set up a mini water pool (a plastic shoe box or a casserole pan) to let them swim for a few minutes every other day, then dry them off and put them back under their heat source (heat lamp or warmer station). But don't leave the pool in their brooder because they will head right back to it and cause a mess or could even possibly drown.

So this is all we know for now.  It will be a steep learning curve with ducks since we are more pullet focused and have our brains geared for taking care of day old chicks, and not so much for day old ducks. 

A Roo, a Sour Crop, and a Sad Day 2022

This most recent flock of birds has been super eventful. One, we had 28 birds to start with (more than we have ever had in one flock) to start with. Second, we received a special order a week in, and needed to purchase eight more birds from the local feed store.  We were successful in obtaining the chicks the customer wanted, and started them in their own space.  We needed to integrate some of the older birds into the newer birds, so we built a second brooder.  The price of lumber is out of this world, so we decided to use chipboard that is covered with a formica product to make this second brooder.  We will see if this is the better option.  I think it will be easier to clean, that's for certain. So, two brooders and 37 chicks about one week apart in age, however a few did die and we dropped down to 34 chicks. 

Then, two weeks later, our meat chicks came in.... now that's the next move.  We had another 25 new chicks to find space for.  We decided to move the Cornish Cross Pull Pen into the garage, put down cardboard and a tarp to contain the shavings, and actually that worked pretty well. We used dry grass hay instead of the hemp shavings because of the overall size of the pen.  Cleaned out the one larger brooder to put the meaties into and get them started. 

So that helped with extra space for the first 26 primary birds and gave us a good space to get the meat birds started without needing to bring them inside the house. The eight new birds were in the smaller brooder.  We gradually introduced the older birds into that second flock for the special order until there were 10 birds in there. So that seemed to solve that integration problem. 

But, while all this was going on, we started noticing that one of the Australorps in the first flock was being too aggressive. Considering that the Australorp are supposed to be a very calm breed, we wondered if it was just having a difficult time adjusting to all the switch up, i.e. a lot of different birds peeping in the background, and being in a cage like environment without the enclosed walls of the brooder. 

We knew we would be delivering the Australorp to its new home within the week so we basically put up with it chasing all the pullets around the pen for the time being, knowing that there was plenty of space for them to get away. But, I mean, it was really aggressive! 

Delivered the four birds to the new customer and bang, five days later, she calls to say that "My Australorp is being aggressive with the other pullets.... is that normal?"  Okay, well, we had one more Australorp in the remaining flock, so I offered to switch it out OR exchange it for a different breed.  She really wanted an Australorp in her flock, so we did, and, at that point, it was pretty obvious that she had a Roo. He had developed a bright red comb and his tail was perking right up, just like a rooster's would. 

We now have him separated in his own cage (dog cage) to avoid anymore damage to the flock.  He is NOT happy, but has calmed down considerably since being in that cage. 

Plus, over the weekend, we sorted out the pullets that we wanted to keep and which ones do we still want to sell.  I noticed that one of the pullets had a very spongey feeling crop, all bloated and obviously was having an issue.  But, she was still eating food, which didn't make any sense if she was having digestive issues. I took her out and isolated her with just water and grit, hoping that, since she was still eating, the grit might break down whatever was going on in her crop. Long story sort, it did not help. The crop ruptured and we needed to cull her before she suffered any longer.  

In the meanwhile, I checked all the other pullets first thing in the morning, after a night without food, to ensure that their crops were "empty" like they are supposed to be first thing before they start a new day of feeding. Their crops all felt normal. I am assuming that the one pullet ate too much of the dry grass hay before we got them outside, and either didn't eat the grit that I had put in their pen or she did eat the grit, but it wasn't enough to help her with digesting the hay. 

As of today, all chicks are outside. 14 pullets are in the Pull Pen modified with a roosting section, 10 pullets are in a smaller A-frame coop/pen (one of our earliest pens), 25 Cornish Cross out outside in a new Pull Pen, and a Australorp Rooster in a Dog Pen.  All pens are now covered in various tarps for the next week worth of rain that is coming in from the Pacific Ocean. LOL 

And on to the next adventure.... we are going to raise some ducks.