I generally avoid those kinds of shows. As toytoy said, a lot of it is invented drama. The littles arrived this morning. Funny how a drive to the post office felt like a "trip" after staying home so long.
We ended up getting our chicks this morning as well. 4 Easter Eggers and 2 Buff Orpingtons. We are starting with just 6 for the time being, but hoping to introduce new birds into the flock next year when we expand the coop a bit. We are also planning on expanding into ducks next year once we finish digging out the pond. I'll post some photos of the chicks tomorrow. I will have to say, we have 5 seemingly regular chickens, and one I can already tell is the bird who rode the short bus to school. I know chickens aren't the smartest of animals to begin with, but this one is just a goon.
I got a good mix in this batch of pullets. I got Easter Eggers, because my wife likes the different colored eggs. Then I got Barred Rocks, Buff Orpingtons, New Hampshire Reds and a couple Spangled Sussex. Meyer Hatchery does a "meal maker" program where if you want, they'll throw in an extra bird, their choice, and you use the food produced from that to pass on to a local charity. I'm pretty sure they threw in a White Rock pullet. White birds don't do so well around here, they're easier for the hawks to spot, but I guess we'll see. One of my Call duck hens has already gone broody. She's in the future turkey pen, so I'll either have to fence around her til they hatch or time the moves to when she can get her young and move with the rest of the ducks. I was gonna put an ad online to sell a couple pair of ducks, but with all the coronavirus shit going on, I guess I'll wait. I may get better prices if they cancel the auction in May. I'm also collecting turkey eggs while the hens are just dropping them wherever. Dad will put them in the incubator and we should be able to get a good price for them, in addition to what the hens set themselves.
@walt your call ducks are so cute. They are miniature and their little beaks are more rounded. They are like the Disney version of a duck.
They’re not even show quality, which should have shorter bills and more rounded heads, I believe. These are expensive enough without having to pay for show quality! I’ll get some pics on here later to show the others. Id still sell or trade them for some good Rouens though, just wouldn’t be able to have as many.
I was reading about Rouens. I guess there is a standard which is larger with a little bigger keel but most of the ones sold are typically a little smaller. Also, it's apparently considered an undesirable trait to have too big of a keel because it makes breeding difficult and makes it more likely that the females will damage eggs. So it may be difficult for you to find birds with that quality.
Let's see some pics! I would love to see your setup. What's your space like? As for that pond, if you have a good sized hole, you can let the ducks seal it themselves with their muck. They will shit up water so fast. If it's a more modest size you're gonna need some kind of filtration.
Its for that reason I haven’t dug an actual pond for our ducks over the years. Unless it’s big enough, I’d end up with a large, smelly shit puddle in no time. Ours get swimming water enough to bathe in and then I empty and/ or remove it til next time. I used to let them go to the little creek that borders our property but they end up taking off for parts unknown downstream. Or they come back by crossing the road and I lose birds to speeding cars. So unless I can be out there to watch them, they stay fenced in.
If you design it right and it's huge with plants that act as natural filters, it'll be ok.... but size really matters. I use a 50 gal bathtub for 5 ducks and that shit is dark green and impossible to see through to the bottom in less than a week. I've seen some amazing run designs that use the edge of a natural creek, huge natural pond or lake. They basically build the structure so that a certain amount of the water is accessible in the run with fencing that goes below the water line and into the ground. The water naturally flows so it doesn't get too mucky. The design that made me a little jealous had the edge of a huge natural pond and a manmade sort of terraced lip on the shore that held in pea gravel covered in sand, then a coop up from that. So easy to clean up and keep fresh.
Here are the chicks. The current setup is just a small pen for them for now. We are working on the coop and run at the moment. We have a garage with 3 buildings attached behind it, the last of the buildings was an 8x12 workshop which we are converting into the coop and we are going to frame out a run off it. We have a digger coming tomorrow to knock down another building that's fallen over and we'll be grading the land around the run as well. The pond for the ducks is going to be an actual pond. We have 2 acres around the house with a pretty flat backyard we are turning into a formal English garden. Behind that, we own another 5 acres, 1.5 of which is a brambly area, and the rest used to be a field for crops. We are going to make a ~.5 acre pond out of the brambly area once we get it cleared this weekend. The rest of the acreage we are going to have a crop rotation starting next year.
Kind of curious, and I know it really depends on the area, but does anyone have a roundabout monetary figure for sinking a well? How about a septic?
Depends on how deep the well goes and how difficult it is to dig. About 4 months ago we had a company drilling out the wells for our geothermal heating. They did 3, 400ft wells. We live right by a creek so about 40ft deep they could barely drill with the amount of water coming up the well. They had to bring in a water tanker to suck out the water while they were drilling. They had to sheath the entirety of the wells which added even more to the cost. We had a contract for the job price, but we saw the breakdown for the wells they dug as the sheathing wasn't included in the initial price and had to be amended after the fact. Each well ran about 12k. Obviously for a regular water well, you don't need to go down that far. It would probably be around 4-6k, again depending on how difficult the terrain is and what the market is like in the area. Make sure you check the zoning in your area as well before you dig. I know most people just say fuck it I'll do what I want on my property, but we had to apply for permits from the town due to some old laws on the books about well digging and residential water contracts. Living in a smaller town they luckily pushed it through without much hassle, especially after they realized it wasn't a drinking water well, but they could have turned it into a real shitshow if they wanted to.
Thanks. I was figuring about $10K...so you kind of confirmed it. I know the water table isn't terribly deep where my property is, but to get through bedrock is quite a ways down. Luckily my property is in a very rural area, there's no permits for anything, so that shouldn't be an issue. I don't know if I even need to do a perc test for my septic. I know in Mississippi I just had the guy dig a hole and put the tank in. I'm kind of hoping for the same thing in MO.
I remember watching some homesteading video on youtube awhile ago and he showed how to drill a shallow well be hand.
I said I would try and get some pics of my Call ducks to show what they look like so I was out snapping pics of all the birds last night. Here's my ducks, they're known as "Gray Calls": They look exactly like Mallards, but a good show quality specimen would have a more rounded head and shorter bill. They come in other colors as well, and can bet quite beautiful. For example, here's Mama on her nest: She's been bred by one of the Gray drakes, so no telling what the little ones will look like. I only breed them for enjoyment, not to show, so not too concerned with bloodlines for them. My Narragansett turkeys however, I intend to be more finicky about. The lady I bought them from brought them in from out of the area and assured me they're pure bred. They are listed as "threatened" by The Livestock Conservancy. Just for the hell of it, I snapped some pics of my ornamental pheasants. I've had one breed or another for more than 20 years, usually these, Lady Amherst Pheasants: Here he is displaying. It took me aa while to get the pic because he moves fast:
We don't go away very often, maybe one week out of the year. When we do, my brother takes care of our animals.
The coyotes would love my ducks but I am not sure the feeling is mutual. Normally we would have family take care of the animals but have become close with our neighbors here. They've had chickens in the past and have cats and dogs so they are very comfortable helping out. We take the dogs with us on trips but pay the teenage daughter to feed and water the ducks, plus let them keep all the eggs.