Raising Chickens

Too soon?

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Dug out the creek to make a duck 'pond', which when we get a heavy rain it will fill back up with sand, but I use the sand for the chicken coops so it's no big deal. The Pekin ducks grow SO fast, a couple of them are HUGE. Apparently there are Pekin and Jumbo Pekin, I honestly wonder if a couple of them are Jumbo's. I wish they could stay at the creek all day, but at the moment they only get to spend a couple hours in the evening down there. The ducks are SOOO clumsy on land, borderline crippled looking, but get them the water and they zoom all over.

I haven't eaten any yet obviously, but based on the growth rate (much slower compared to the Pekin's), I don't think I will fool with Rudd Rangers again. I have had three of them die (and I pretty much never have chicks die). I definitely will be waiting for some Pekin eggs to incubate/grow to butcher.
 

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The size difference in the Rudd rangers and pekins is NUTS. Even the smallest Pekin's are probably twice the size of the largest Rudd. Granted, I don't know exact ages of any of these, but based on size when we got them (Aug 22nd) they should all be within a week or so of each other. I need to do a side by side comparison---and maybe weight as well.
 

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We weighed a couple of the Pekin's today as well as our fully grown Khaki Campbell's. The largest Pekin's were around 5 lbs. Our Khaki Campbell's (one male one female) were around 3 lbs each. Hoover Hatchery says butcher date at 40 days or around 7 lbs. We are of course waiting on these to fully mature so we can keep one male and a few females, but next time around hopefully the butcher by 40-60 days will work out.
 
Finally put the young ducks together with the adult Khaki Campbells. It took a couple days, but now they are all pretty much 'OK' with each other. The male KC is still in charge even though the large Pekin's outweigh him 3:1, but at least now they can all be in the creek together, and sleep in the same house together.

WATER access is the biggest deal breaker with ducks IMO. A plastic pool gets nasty quick, would need to be cleaned and refilled daily. The creek cleans itself, we put a small dish of water in their house at night, but they are always eager to get to the creek in the morning, and spend basically all day in the creek.

The biggest issue I can see arising is male vs male issues. The chickens I can keep in separate pens, but it's hard to section off the creek.... I would like a few more KC females for eggs, but the pain is raising them to maturity before they can be put with the adults. Chicks are SOOO much easier, as even young chicks (3-4 week old) can free range with the adults without issues. The male duck basically chased the ducklings relentlessly...

Still eager to see how they taste. I am pretty sure the two black ones are Cayuga drakes, so they will likely both get the ax. One KC that I am still unsure if it is a male or female. Their quacks are starting to change, so hopefully in another few weeks I will be able to make a better judgement call on them.
 

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Tacoma747 said:
Finally put the young ducks together with the adult Khaki Campbells. It took a couple days, but now they are all pretty much 'OK' with each other. The male KC is still in charge even though the large Pekin's outweigh him 3:1, but at least now they can all be in the creek together, and sleep in the same house together.

WATER access is the biggest deal breaker with ducks IMO. A plastic pool gets nasty quick, would need to be cleaned and refilled daily. The creek cleans itself, we put a small dish of water in their house at night, but they are always eager to get to the creek in the morning, and spend basically all day in the creek.

The biggest issue I can see arising is male vs male issues. The chickens I can keep in separate pens, but it's hard to section off the creek.... I would like a few more KC females for eggs, but the pain is raising them to maturity before they can be put with the adults. Chicks are SOOO much easier, as even young chicks (3-4 week old) can free range with the adults without issues. The male duck basically chased the ducklings relentlessly...

Still eager to see how they taste. I am pretty sure the two black ones are Cayuga drakes, so they will likely both get the ax. One KC that I am still unsure if it is a male or female. Their quacks are starting to change, so hopefully in another few weeks I will be able to make a better judgement call on them.
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Look for the curl in their tail feathers. Should two or maybe one will curl like a curly-Q. If it’s there it’s a male.
 
skyhighZJ said:
Look for the curl in their tail feathers. Should two or maybe one will curl like a curly-Q. If it’s there it’s a male.
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Yea no curls yet. As soon as I see some curls or feel real confident by their voices there are going to be some heads chopped off 😂.
 
Happened to be home today when a small hawk tried to abscond with one of my girls. My Zeus sprang into action and ran it off. Last I saw it, it was flying back towards my neighbors horse pasture.

Good rooster 🥰
 
Got some Thanksgiving babies. First ones we've hatched. Yes, the chick is up and moving now.

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3 out so far, 5 more have pipped through.

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8 little fluff balls for Thanksgiving.

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My 3 hens have all but stopped laying. I haven’t had this happen with any birds in winter even. They are all 2-3 years old so may be age related. I have a light/timer to extend how much light they are exposed to. May switch up food brands, I remember something about that a while back.
 
ponykilr said:
My 3 hens have all but stopped laying. I haven’t had this happen with any birds in winter even. They are all 2-3 years old so may be age related. I have a light/timer to extend how much light they are exposed to. May switch up food brands, I remember something about that a while back.
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Have they molted already this year? The light may throw off their time of year to molt. All our hens that were 1+ year old molted over the past month and stopped laying, but some of those have picked back up. Which, we are in no shortage of eggs, about 10 a day, I don't know what to do with them all 🤣
 
Tacoma747 said:
Have they molted already this year? The light may throw off their time of year to molt. All our hens that were 1+ year old molted over the past month and stopped laying, but some of those have picked back up. Which, we are in no shortage of eggs, about 10 a day, I don't know what to do with them all 🤣
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You need me to stop by and pick some up? :D
 
Tacoma747 said:
Have they molted already this year? The light may throw off their time of year to molt. All our hens that were 1+ year old molted over the past month and stopped laying, but some of those have picked back up. Which, we are in no shortage of eggs, about 10 a day, I don't know what to do with them all 🤣
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We aren't getting any. My wife was complaining about having to buy eggs. How many you got unwashed and want to move?
 
We had to move a hen inside the garage just a little bit ago, she was shivering, so we moved her and her sister inside with a heat lamp. Not looking forward to keeping her inside for an extended period of time, but I guess since she is quite possibly the #1 favorite I probably need to. She had a huge gouge on her side (as in, about 2" long down to the meat) from a rooster a couple months ago (which has healed), but her feathers are kind of scraggly looking.
 
They’re all healthy looking, free range every day, eat well 🤷🏼‍♂️

We bought eggs for the first time in 2 years last week.
 
Well.... Heard some random chirping across the yard from the other chicks, and lo and behold we have another batch lol. This one's got 3 hatched, and another 8 eggs or so under her.

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