Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

Hi everyone

Must tell you what one of my cheeky ducks did this morning. I was clearing out under the ducks hotel as hens and ducks are in full swing with their moulting at the moment. Also have to poop pick under there because during the day quite a few of the ducks camp out under there. Think they do that so they can have some peace away from my lunatic hens. Anyway as I was raking it out one of the Aylesbury ducks came up behind me and started quacking. As I had not finished clearing it out I told her to wait as I knew she wanted to sit under there. She continued to quack standing behind me so I then said you can't go under there until I have finished because I like the ground nice and clean for you lot to sit on. Still she continued to quack at me and by now really loudly until a text message came in on my phone that is. I took my phone out of my pocket and read the text but as I was answering it still kneeling in front of the hotel with the rake leaning on my lap the blooming duck darted around me and sneaked under there before I could grab her. Sneaky wotsit but I had to laugh. I swear it took me 3 times as long to finish the job with her sitting under there as I had to be so careful with the blooming rake. The cheek of it eh! :rotfl:

Hope everyone and their hens are ok.

Edwink

Pyxis

edwink wrote: »

Hi everyone

Must tell you what one of my cheeky ducks did this morning. I was clearing out under the ducks hotel as hens and ducks are in full swing with their moulting at the moment. Also have to poop pick under there because during the day quite a few of the ducks camp out under there. Think they do that so they can have some peace away from my lunatic hens. Anyway as I was raking it out one of the Aylesbury ducks came up behind me and started quacking. As I had not finished clearing it out I told her to wait as I knew she wanted to sit under there. She continued to quack standing behind me so I then said you can't go under there until I have finished because I like the ground nice and clean for you lot to sit on. Still she continued to quack at me and by now really loudly until a text message came in on my phone that is. I took my phone out of my pocket and read the text but as I was answering it still kneeling in front of the hotel with the rake leaning on my lap the blooming duck darted around me and sneaked under there before I could grab her. Sneaky wotsit but I had to laugh. I swear it took me 3 times as long to finish the job with her sitting under there as I had to be so careful with the blooming rake. The cheek of it eh! :rotfl:

Hope everyone and their hens are ok.

Edwink

Gosh! Where did she learn to send a text? :rotfl:
Does she have the DuckDuckGo app? :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

:rotfl: you lot :rotfl:

Thanks for the herby info jac99 :j Most helpful :j We're in the process of setting up for our chickens too and it would be nice to plant them some good smelling things around their new home :j

Of course, I should probably get on with actually building the coop first, and the run, before I start thinking about flowers round the door and fairy lights :rotfl: :rotfl: Got another fortnight before they arrive though, and we have all the materials, and I'm now off work for all that time so lots of time :j

Pyxis

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

:rotfl: you lot :rotfl:

Thanks for the herby info jac99 :j Most helpful :j We're in the process of setting up for our chickens too and it would be nice to plant them some good smelling things around their new home :j

Of course, I should probably get on with actually building the coop first, and the run, before I start thinking about flowers round the door and fairy lights :rotfl: :rotfl: Got another fortnight before they arrive though, and we have all the materials, and I'm now off work for all that time so lots of time :j

If it's fairy lights for hens you want..................




You can get duck ones, too!



.

suki1964

Ive been off the radar lately so Im just wading in not having read all the posts since my last visit thoroughly

We have a medium sized garden I guess. We are lucky we are on raised land so our boundary is down banks surrounded by tress so the hens have that area as well to dig around in. We cordon parts off to re grass as they can eat a lawn bare very quickly

Whilst in the middle of the country we have been so lucky that in four years we haven't had one fox strike. Those around us have lost whole flocks, some up to 30 birds

Perhaps the fact we are raised or because all our neighbours lower then us have big outside dogs, I don't know

What we have had is magpies getting into the coop and stealing the eggs this year, as well as the usual rooks,crows, starlings and pigeons eating us out of house and home

We have covered the pen where the feeders are with chicken wire which has stopped a lot of the food theft. We also decorated the outside of the coop with cds and seeing as we had an old mannequin laying around ( don't ask) we stuck him in with the ducks which has really helped



Anyways, as Edwink may remember, after a lot of loses this year through illness and accidents, our hearts are no longer in keeping them and we have been running our flock down

We now have another hen who is going to meet their maker tomorrow

We are going to rehome the remaining 9 and 2 ducks

4 are elderly now and rarely lay and whilst I still adore them as pets, we grew the flock to produce eggs. This is the first time we haven't raised chicks to replace the old girls

Edwink I know helps her hens for a different reason then us, and good for her. I love that she keeps a hotel for old hens, id love that myself if we had the room and time

So our hen keeping years will be coming to an end this year.

Im a city girl, uprooted to the county and whilst I feel I adapted really well and can talk the talk, walking the walk ( having to cull ) gets to me

On top of all that we are getting older ourselves, we are now looking to want to travel a bit before we can no longer sit on a plane, and whilst hens aren't really hard work, they need a commitment

So thats where I am right now

Pyxis

Thanks Suki.

It's also interesting to get another side to the story.

You were brave to make the decision, as it was obviously a hard one.
:A

Alias_Omega

Ducks & Noise

Do you have any complaints about noise? Are they noisy? What is the minimum numbers? 2+1?

edwink

suki1964 wrote: »

We are going to rehome the remaining 9 and 2 ducks

So our hen keeping years will be coming to an end this year.

Hi Suki

That must have been quite a hard decision to make as I remember from some of your posts that you absolutely loved their eggs especially in cooking. If I remember correctly you were the one that posted the photo of that HUGE egg that beat all of mine hands down. Someone else posted a huge egg photo too but yours even beat that one hands down so what chance did I have? :rotfl:

I think you know yourself when you have to say goodbye to keeping poultry. I hope you have fun moving forward and manage to sit on a plane for many years to come. Enjoy tour travels.

Thank you for posting.

Edwink

edwink

Alias_Omega wrote: »

Ducks & Noise

Do you have any complaints about noise? Are they noisy? What is the minimum numbers? 2+1?

Hi

As a rule ducks are not noisy unless you have quite a few of them as in maybe 10 + and they are not Call ducks which are extremely noisy. Ducks as a rule will only quack if they want something or someone is annoying them as in my case here one of my elderly lunatic hens nicking their food which they do constantly Drakes are much quieter because they have what is known as half a quack and yes it really is half a quack.

You should never keep just one duck on their own the same as hens as they would hate it and become depressed. Always make sure you have at least two of them if you can. Also bare in mind that ducks need much more space than a hen does.

Hope that helps

Edwink

Pyxis

Half a quack! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:


What with half-quacking ducks and hens with egg on their faces, this thread really makes me giggle! :rotfl: :T