Neighbour making formal noise complaint.

[chicken paley]

hi,

 

i really want to get some ducks but unfortunately my parents are being a bit uncooperative as we already have 4 pekin bantam chickens and a silkie bantam.

 

does anybody have any good arguments to present to them?

 

also what incubators would be suitable for hatching a small amount of duck eggs on a budget?

 

Thanks

Francis

[Duckmomma]

Hi

How many eggs were you thinking of incubating ?

And would you be wanting an incubator with automatic turner?

 

Chicken 04 has a nice incubator kit that she says was a bargain, she has six duck eggs in it, and they seem to be doing well,but she does have to turn them by hand, she got lots of other usefull stuff in the kit too.

 

Or the Rcom three egg incubator is very good, you just set it and forget it, it turns them, counts down the days to hatching, beeps when water is low,

and is perfect for watching the hatching It also looks nice and is quite inexpensive around sixty pounds I think.

 

Tell your parents duck eggs taste wonderfull

Also if you are ultra helpfull in helping to look after the Bantams they will see they won't get landed with the job of looking after the ducks

[chicken paley]

i was thinking of incubating about 6 eggs (the ones from ebay - if anyone has any experience with them i would appreciate hearing about it)

also i would want a automatic turner. the Rcom 3 does sound good thanks, however looking at it, it only holds 2 duck eggs or there abouts.

my budget could stretch to two but i'm afraid that knowing me ill spend a fortune on everything!!

[xChicken04x]

Hi, tis xChicken04x here .

I got this incubator set:

http://www.ascott-dairy.co.uk/acatalog/Ascott_Complete_Home_Hatchery_Incubator.html

 

It's not automatic though, but someone's home for most of the day so we're around to turn them. Automatic ones are more expensive, if you are incubating a large amount of eggs then they are handy. But I'm only incubating 6 so I didn't bother.

 

I spent about a month trying to decide what kind of breed to get, I eventually decided on Silver Appleyards. I've never kept ducks before, but like you have chickens. Trying to decide what breed to get was a nightmare. I'm not really sure what kind of duck you would want? Good egg layer? Large or Bantam? Pretty to look at?

I bought eggs off eBay too, fertility depends on a lot of things, how active the parent birds are, how they have been handled in the postal system etc. I candled my eggs yesterday, 5/6 fertile But it isn't the same for some people.

I got mine off beverley6058 she is really nice, very helpful. She currently has some more on eBay if your interested.

 

Good luck!

 

xx

Edited March 10, 2008 by Guest

[Duckmomma]

The Rcom will hold three duck eggs if you don't choose too big a breed.

I have had three runner eggs in mine and they were fine

 

I also have a smart egg incubator, it's the egg shaped one with the clear dome top, that is even better for watching the eggs hatch.

It's also very good for waterfowl as the shape keeps the fan far above the eggs so they don't get too dry during hatching.

If you look on Yay getting three day old indian runner ducks post from Tara I have posted a picture of our duck at two hours old in the smart egg, you can only see a bit of it but it will give you an idea of how good the view of the eggs is in one

 

I have bought eggs from ebay

I have a dozen silkie bantam eggs from ebay in an incubator now and they are all fertile

 

I have also had duck eggs from there too

some good some not

our chocolate brown runner house duck came from ebay eggs, but it was not a good batch. they were really cheap eggs and the membranes were so tough she was the only one to make it out of the egg

 

I have spent a lot of money on goose eggs on ebay and none of them have been any good

 

Always check feed back on ebay, people will often follow up on feedback saying if eggs were fertile or not.

[Duckmomma]

Hi Cchicken

You arrived while I was typing my message

So glad your eggs are doing well

My goose eggs were no good

but never mind Bantams are fertile

[chicken paley]

i was thinking along the lines of runners as they are really cool but knowing my mum shell want a good layer so i was also thinking along the lines of campbells. if anyone knows about these ducks i could really do with the advice!

[Duckmomma]

Runners lay well too

And they are sooooo funny

But then I'm Biased

[chicken paley]

lol

do runners need much water (a pond)? or will they be happy with a washing up bowl or such like? and how big do they grow and how long does it take to reach full maturity?

[Duckmomma]

A bowl of water is fine, or even a litter tray of water will do.

I have tried to measure Baby our duck, but she won't co operate I'm afraid

But I reckon on a couple of feet.

Runners are fully fledged at about eight weeks and start to lay around four and a half to five months old.

Runners and cambels are pretty much the same when it comes to egg laying.

[Cazz]

hi, i have two cherry valley ducks i hatched about 2 and a half month ago. my mum at first said they could stay at home as long as they had too, but as soon as they're old enough they had to go down my allotment. unfortunatuely ive struggled to get hold of a shed for them and i still have them living in my utility room. Fortunately, however, with them being so socialable my mum and dad both sit and play with them, and quite often i catch them talking to them!

 

Cherry valley are apparently prolific egg layers too, they're about twice as big as call ducks, but to me thats quite a nice size, i did have 3 alyesbury ducks which were hige incomparison. They'renot to noisey either, only when they want something!