NO LIGHTS IN THE DUCK HOUSE

by with No Comment DucksGolden Cascades

Since two of the ducks have suffered a prolapsed oviduct, we’ve done a lot more reading about this issue. One of the causes may have been that the young ducks were forced to commence laying at too young an age by adding artificial light to their daily routine. I will say that I didn’t begin adding the artificial light too soon, according to several references. Most resources recommend somewhere between 19-23 weeks of age, and I began lighting at 21 weeks, just a little more than the natural daylight at that time.

However, after consideration, we have decided not to provide artificial light any longer. We will let the ducks lay naturally, and if we don’t have eggs during late fall & early winter, we’ll survive. I can freeze extra eggs prior to the molt, as I have done before.

I had thought about easing them off of the light gradually, but after Tim had read that the Golden Cascades will typically lay from January-August without the aid of artificial lighting, and with the difficulty of trying to keep Gertrude in the dark AND provide light for the others, I decided to remove the light completely. So, as of February 16, they now have no artificial light.

As of this morning, the ducks have continued to lay. It will be interesting to see if this continues.

GERTRUDE – UPDATE

by with No Comment DucksGolden Cascades

Gertrude is doing well! Yesterday evening (the end of the first full day in “lock-up”) I discovered that Gertrude had laid an egg–the first in a few days. Again, this morning there was another egg on her side of the fence, and all body parts are still intact, nothing hanging out. We will keep her in lock-up a few days, and hopefully this problem will be resolved. The three remaining ducks have spent a lot of time hanging out just outside the side of the duck house where Gertrude is held. I guess they’re keeping her company.

GERTRUDE

by with One Comment DucksGolden Cascades

After yesterday’s visit to the wolf sanctuary with Bess, we came home to deal with another duck.

Gertrude has also begun to show signs of a prolapsed oviduct. Since I’ve only begun to notice this and it is not in such an advanced stage as Bess, we will attempt to treat this. After doing a lot of research, here’s what I did:

First, I set Gertrude into a tub of lukewarm water with epsom salts and held her there for about 10 minutes in our shed, which was shielded from wind and the other ducks. Then, with Tim’s help, he held her down on a table covered with a towel, while I attempted to push the outward area back in. With a gloved hand, I first massaged the area with a mixture of coconut oil and honey. (If I’d had some Preparation H, I would have used it.) Then, I pushed the protruding area inside her body, with more of the coconut oil mixture. I massaged around a bit to see if there was an egg that needed to be expelled. If there was an egg in process, I don’t believe it was formed yet–there was nothing like a hard shell. Gertrude stayed amazingly calm and allowed us to do this. I’ve gotta say, the part that had been exposed was a bit crusty. Hopefully, now inside her body it will stay put and soften up.

After this we put her into a small section of the duck house, and blocked all light except one small vent opening for ventilation. She will stay here for a day or two, at least. The darkness should keep her from laying eggs, and the separation should keep her still, and away from the drake. While in the duckhouse, she’s being given water with some calcium dissolved into it, some chopped spinach and a mixture of hen scratch, whole oats and a little of the layer feed. I’m too far away from any stores to go buy non-layer feed, and I’m using what I have on hand.  I’ll take a look at her later today to see if her body parts are still inside.  If not, I may have to repeat the procedure above.

This treatment is based on the articles HERE and HERE, in addition to a few forum comments, David Holderread’s “Storey’s Guide to Raising Ducks”, Rick & Gail Luttmann’s “Ducks & Geese in Your Backyard”, and Lisa Steele’s “Duck Eggs Daily.”

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BESS

by with One Comment DucksGolden Cascades

Sorry to say it, but we’ve had to let Bess go. She developed a prolapsed oviduct, and it would have required an expensive visit to a vet to repair her. It just wasn’t worth it to us to take the time or spend the money. Apparently it is somewhat common, we’ve just never experienced it before. I believe she was our first duck to lay eggs; the day we first had eggs, she had a wet, drippy rear end with something hanging out. This led me to believe she was the one to lay. Perhaps she had problems right from the beginning, although it did go away and she was fine for a while.

Bess began to lay eggs on November 15th, just 2 1/2 weeks after I began lighting the duck house to encourage laying. It wasn’t until January 26th that we found more eggs from other ducks. In the meantime, we had a couple of whopper-sized, double-yolk eggs–one was 4.5 ounces. They must have been hard to push out!

Apparently the prolapsed oviduct can be caused by a few things:

  • A duck that’s been artificially encouraged to lay too young, and lays eggs before their bodies are mature enough.
    • I don’t believe this was the case; I didn’t begin to add light before the recommended age (I began at 21 weeks. Sources suggest anywhere from 19-23 weeks.)
  • A duck may have strained too hard when laying extra large eggs.
    • This may have been the case for Bess.
  • The drakes may have been overly abusive to the duck.
    • I suppose this is possible, but I haven’t noticed, and I don’t have too many drakes in ratio to the hens. (1 drake to 4 hens seems reasonable.)
  • A duck may inherit this trait.
    • Maybe???
  • She may not have had enough calcium, which not only helps form the shells, but give strength to the muscle structure in the vent area.
    • This is possible. I was not giving oyster shell or other calcium, but solely relying on the calcium content in the layer feed and some crushed eggshells added to the feed.

So, I don’t know why this occurred, but I think I will be more careful in the future not to attempt adding light for young ducklings. I may just let nature take its course, and they’ll lay on their own time-clock, not mine. I will also give free-choice oyster shell.

Our visit to the wolf sanctuary last August.

Bess was taken today to our local wolf sanctuary. That may seem extreme to some readers, but after all, it’s the “circle of life”, and these wolves are unable to be in the wild to find their own food. They appreciate donations of fresh meat.

SPOT

SPOT FLIES!

by with No Comment DucksGolden Cascades

Silly Spot. She seems to be my silliest duck.

For the third time I know of, Spot has gotten herself onto the deck.
She’s not terribly concerned, just looking at her buddies below.
Her buddies are checking her out.
She contemplates her departure.

 

And….there she goes. Flying like a real duck!
She’s just gotta work on that landing. Not too graceful.

Silly Spot!

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FIRST EGGS!

by with No Comment DucksGolden Cascades
First eggs from Golden Cascades, 14 November 2015

There were TWO EGGS in the duck house this morning! This is a full month earlier than the first eggs we’d gotten from our previous ducks.

One of the eggs (the larger of the two) was crushed, but the other was unbroken. They both had some blood on the outside, and the shells were not real hard. The smaller of the two was about the size of a medium to large chicken egg. I did not want to eat the egg, due to its messiness on the outside, but I cracked it open and it was fine on the inside.

One of the ducks, Bess, had a gooey mess hanging from her rear–I imagine she was one of this morning’s layers. A couple of days ago I noticed she had a quacking fit. Quack, quack, quack…constant for several minutes. Perhaps she knew this thing was growing inside her. I can’t help but wonder what these ducks must be thinking the first day they lay an egg???

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LIGHTS FOR EGGS

by with No Comment DucksGolden Cascades

The ducks are now 21 weeks old. I love the way their color camouflages them to protect them from predators. This is one of their favorite hangouts. Can you count all five? (Where’s Waldo?)

On Monday (10/26) I put a timer on a light in the duck house. It’s coming on just before dawn right now, and each week I’ll increase the amount of light they get until they’ve got at least 14 hours of light per day. Hopefully they will think it’s becoming spring, and this will stimulate egg production. We’ve also gotten a thermostat to put on a heat lamp, so on the coldest nights they’ll have some warmth. How pampered they are!

It was 17 degrees in the morning a couple of days ago, but usually around 25-30. I’m beginning to have to break up the ice in their water bowl each morning, and sometimes their pool. Eventually I will stop filling the pool, but as long as it melts during the day, I’ll let them continue to enjoy it. Soon we’ll be adding the water heater to their bowl, so at least they’ll be able to drink and dip their heads.

Golden Cascades

DOWN TO 5 DUCKS

by with No Comment DucksGolden Cascades
Golden Cascades, 17 Weeks Old, 4 Hens, 1 Drake

Now we’ve got the final count. After discovering that we had two drakes (rather than just one, as planned) we have now donated one of the drakes to a nearby Wolf Sanctuary.  I’m sure the wolves there appreciate the donation. The photo above shows the ducks we plan to keep indefinitely. Hopefully, the drake will allow us to have a few baby ducklings in the spring.

The last batch of ducks we had remained unnamed, other than the colored bands they had around their ankles (pink, green, blue, etc.)  This time they look different enough that I’m planning to go ahead and name them. The names are still up in the air a bit, but for now they are as follows:

Wily – This is the drake that fooled us into believing he was a she, and now his life has been spared. Other than the blue-gray bill, I believe his plumage is closer to the preferred colors for this breed. (Per Dave Holderread.) Also, he has better camouflage than the other drake had, which is my preference.

Next, we have Bess, until I think of a better name. I thought about “Brownie” because she’s quite brown…I could change my mind.

Here is Ellie May. I just thought it was a cute name, and this duck has no outstanding characteristics.

Meet Gertrude. I just thought a duck should be named Gertrude.

This is either Spot, or Splash, or Dory.  One of these days I will decide. Spot would be because when she was little she had a spot on her right foot. Now she has a couple of black spots on her beak. Splash would be because she’s the first one in the pool many a time, and runs there first thing in the morning, before going to the food dish.  Because she likes the water, Tim thought of Dory, after the fish in Finding Nemo.  So, Dory would be cute….but which name will stick? Any ideas?

THE DUCK STORY

by with No Comment Golden CascadesMountain Gaitway

In addition to building the house, we took on 13 ducklings, which arrived June 4th.

13 Ducklings, June 5

They grew, and grew, and at 12 weeks, they really filled the pool!

A few days ago we finally found time to “reduce the flock”. We sold two of the females, and butchered three drakes and two of the remaining females. As planned, we had six remaining ducks; presumably one drake and five hens, all the Golden Cascades.
The only problem was this little stinker. “She” turned out to be a “he”. This one looks pretty much like the other hens, and with 13 ducks, I hadn’t noticed that he talks like a drake. Just after the butchering was over, Tim noticed that this duck was making the drake sound, and sure enough, he also has the drake curly tail.
Golden Cascade Drake
He doesn’t have the white ring around his neck as the other drakes, nor the yellow bill. In fact, this bill is quite blueish-grey. All along I’ve just thought this was one of the hens. I had wanted to keep 5 hens for laying, but it’s not a real big deal that there are only 4 now. There will be plenty of eggs for Tim and me. We’ll have to figure out what to do with this extra drake, but we’ll figure it out.
For now, it’s awfully nice to have a mere six, calmer ducks. There’s less competition for food, they all happily float in the pool a great deal of the time, and it’s nice putting out half as much food for them. I don’t have to clean the water bowl or pool as often, either. Ahhhhh.