The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: doganjo on June 25, 2014, 04:22:02 pm
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My four ducks and drake managed to let themselves out of their shed (they can open the pop hole and squeeze out) but they also magicked their way out of a run with four foot high solid wooden fence panels with another 3 feet of netting above it, and done a bunk. So sod them, they were skittish anyway, I've put half a dozen eggs in the incubator. Now I need to remember when to candle them - is it 10 days?
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do you want me to come over after tea and look for them?
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oh, rubbish ducks, Annie! I spent all afternoon last week catching 7 of them as they's squeezed after the boy and into the hedgerow by the road and they were too stupid to find their way back themselves! Hens are so much smarter....I'm still cross with them!
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do you want me to come over after tea and look for them?
No It's OK but thanks anyway, I've opened the gate and I have a feeling I can hear them so I think they have gone up river. It's so overgrown that I can't see anything. I've just checked the run and the ONLY way they could have got out is by flying over the netting at at the gate. They weren't very early going either as there were three eggs in a nest. If they get stuck up there it's their own fault - they can find their own food and save me the cost! :innocent:
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YIPPEE!!! They're home! Don't know where they've been all day but at least they know where they live! Must try to figure out how they escaped from their run
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Congratulations! :thumbsup: Yours are smarter than mine! They would have happily stayed by the roadside without water - the boy got so scared by me that he flew up and in a circle over the duckhouse and back into their run, that was an amazing sight but I still had to crawl under to get to 6 girls happily munching beasties and Tara got stung by a bumble bee whacking the hedge from the road....
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Flying ducks? Must be a good deal lighter than mine! Re.candling, my duck eggs are really easy to see and I can generally tell within five days or less but ten means you'll be confident (or if you're like me, you'll want to check a few days in because you're keen to know and then double check at the right time :)).
H