Recent content by loopy12

I hatched these guys out at the same time...black Cayuga ducklings (there are two, but only one in photo) and an emerald blue duckling :). Overdose of cuteness...

I got a mix of eggs that are supposed to be Czech geese or Franconian blue geese, but they weren't labelled. One gosling is all yellow with pink feet and a pink beak, so I'm fairly sure he is a Czech goose. The other two have darker beaks and grayish legs. I presume (and hope) they are...

I used to have four geese. Three came with the house when we bought it, the fourth I hatched from their eggs. A fox attack in broad daylight last summer took out the three adults. The remaining male goose bonded with my ducks that I hatched last year, and all was well. For a while. Now they...

I have 7 brahma chicks. I know the sex of the three light brahmas and the two partridge brahmas, but am unsure about my dark brahma and blue brahma. Any guesses? The dark brahma isn't very pencilled compared to my female partridge brahma, but doesn't have dark chest feathers or shanks either...

So the fact their combs are already getting a little pink isn't a concern? They seem to be maturing very fast, like my lakenvelders did - only head fluff left at 3.5 weeks, fully feathered otherwise.

Can you help me sex my niederrheiners? I hatched three of them, and I had thought they were all boys because their combs are all a bit pink at the base, but reading this thread I'm not so sure now. I am in Italy so may not be the same line, but the breeder the eggs came from is excellent...

:hit: :rolleyes: I swear there's something in the water this year...36 chicks...only 7 girls...

I have three faverolles chicks I am unsure of the gender of. They are pure bred, eggs from a local breeder (in Italy). Two are much darker, but the color in their primaries is dark gray/brown not true black that I read indicates roosters. I have hatched so many boys this year - about 20% girls...

I have hatched lots of ducklings over the years, but the last two hatches I've had real problems with soggy bedding. I don't remember it being so bad before, possibly because it was later in the year so I could put them outside on the grass with a heatlamp so the water was more easily absorbed...

Quick question - if you use a brinsea ecoglow, do you put the lowest height setting or the middle one for 1-3 day old ducklings? They are Mallards, but lowest setting still seems like it would be too close to their backs, and certainly touching their heads even if they lie down. Thoughts?

I find imprinting varies between breeds and also depends on how many other ducklings they are with. My Cayugas showed the strongest tendency to imprint on me - even as adults they would waddle so fast across the garden to get to me that they'd trip over each other, then would climb in my lap to...

Did you weigh the eggs before they went in the incubator? With ducks and geese I adjust incubator humidity depending on how well they are losing weight which is the most accurate measure and aim for about 14% weight loss by lockdown on day 25. 40% aircell, by volume, sounds a lot for day 14 -...

Fantastic news...so pleased for you...a long journey, but a result worth waiting for :) Photos?

Yes and no on the ducks...I incubate duck with chicken at 45%, but lockdown chicken at 65%, duck at 70%, so until lockdown its fine. Even saying that, I've also hatched duck and chicken together in the past (by setting duck a week earlier) at 70% lockdown. In your case, because the ducks go...

Why don't you put the KC's in with the rest until you need to lockdown, then move them to the little one? I regularly incubate duck with chicken until lockdown... I would worry about the vibration when the embies are just a bunch of fragile blood vessels....