The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: princesspiggy on May 01, 2011, 10:29:23 am
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my indian runner trio are 12 mths. girls are laying 2 eggs a day. i havent seen the drake working at all. have incubated the eggs anyway, hoping i missed his advances but none are fertilised. im wondering whether to get a new drake or is he just too young yet?
interestingly, he had a curl in his tail last year but none now.
:wave:
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HA ha - could be a transvestite! Listen to his/her voice? Better with 3 or 4 girls for one drake anyway, minimum, KCs need more - 8 to 10.
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My Aylesbury is just confused, ??? hes keen but he spends most of his time the wrong way round :-\ Then hes a bit to keen on chatting up the hens through the fence :( His mother is my German Shepard and has learnt from her, so if were in the garden eating he will tug on your clothes, and if the dog runs to the fence and barks the duck now also runs and quacks ::)
I'm afraid its a downside of living with us, nothing normal here ;D I love em ta bits ;)
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I've just put eggs in my incubator too. My Indian Runner drake is running with one IR female and two female Khaki Campbells. He used to get very romantic with the KC's, but have never seen him with the IR female. I've put a mixture in the incubator so will be interested to see what happens, although I suspect it will be very little indeed!
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we must have wasted 30 good eggs in the incy, shame. if hes not too young, maybe il get him some oysters ...lol.. :wave:
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we must have wasted 30 good eggs in the incy, shame. if hes not too young, maybe il get him some oysters ...lol.. :wave:
Did you want 30 more ducks? Cos if he is a he and had been working you conceivably might have got a 100% hatch - not likely admittedly but you'd have had a fair few! ;D Listen to him/her talking and see if he/she can tell you what he/she is ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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pp where did you get him/her :wave:
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im wanting to build up an egg laying flock really, then sell surplus ducklings. they are really nice type and healthy birds, from a local private breeder but through thainstone, lastyear. was really pleased with them cos were the best ones available on the day...hes just not randy!! mayb i can get a new drake.
do adult IR have a curl in their tail? he did last year for a bit but not now. maybe its a large duck and not a drake at all... ???
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pp that explains a lot some breeders manipulate the feathers to give the appearance of males it is wellknown this goes on at lanark
sorry but it appears you have been done that is why i asked where you bought them :wave:
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When I first got my IR pair the drake had no curl in his tail. They were quite stressed for a long time, it wasn't until we got the two Khaki Campbell girls and let them all free range that his curl appeared - as did his libido. His curl isn't there just now, I have no explanation for that. Is it a seasonal thing, like chickens going off the lay?
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He should do his job at this age - as this is the only job the boys do not too much to ask ;) I found Indian runners also quite aggressive and randy males. Do you have a picture of them you can share?
Did you hear his voice? Best way to tell, quite dinstinctly different from the girls' :&>
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we bought them in sept, his curl came in early winter then gone again now. his body (mainly lower rump) is different to the 2 girls, they have fan shaped tails, and he is taller and although he is chocolate, im sure he has a very slight greenish tinge over his head. 3 ducks is no problem as i cud get a new drake. better than finding out they are all drakes lol ;D
but new ducklings would be nice.....
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i've found my male only mounts the girls when he has access to a decent mody of water where the ducks can "float" happily
he about gave me a heartattack when i first caught him "in the act", i thouht he was trying to drown her :o
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mine do it anywhere but a paddling pool might help. I have heard of drowned ducks but that might just be a story....
Looking at his colours on the pics - he may just be younger than you think, give him time. ;D :&>
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we'l just wait then. theres no chocolate drakes at thainstone anyway so no temptation to get a new one. :( theyve got 2 paddling pools, we used to have a good pond but was always so filthy so we drained it and they are fine with their pools.
thanx :D
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I can't for the life of me think of a system for having a duck pond which isn't always revolting. Ours have a very small pool which I flush out every morning. I drive my husband mad because I always forget to turn off the hose and the garage floods. Need a better solution! A little stream is something I dream of! One of our fields flooded over the winter and the ducks were in paradise. They wouldn't come home to bed, though, and the birds ate the eggs which they laid down there. Luckily the ducks weren't eaten. I want to build them a pond, but don't know how I'd keep it clean.
This morning when I collected the eggs I was surprised to see that the girls had hidden them - very well! The eggs were under lots of straw. Does this mean they might be broody?
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My girls hide their eggs every morning under the straw/shredded paper bedding. Ducks do tend to hide their eggs - or lay them out in the open for all to see!
If you can find a pond liner with a drain you can construct a poll fro your ducks that can stay relatively clean. Bed the liner in lots of gravel and sand, make a trace with a plastic pipe sloping down from the drain plug to a soakaway, then backfill all around it. Then you can pull the plug and flush the pond whenever you want.