Puff & Squeek - First time outside

I brought my 2 ducklings Puff and Squeek outside for the first time.  They are just over a week old.  They spent just a few minutes outside.  I let them swim in the tub.  They followed me everywhere.  So cute!

Introducing Puff and Squeek to their parents but they don't have a clue.  The parents Mr. & Mrs. Ducky don't recognize them at all and seem to be scared of the ducklings. Video below.

Here's their video swimming outside for the first time.

Puff & Squeek – Super Cute Fluffy Yellow Balls

Being my day off today means I’ve got time for blogging.  First I thank God that another duckling hatched last weekend after the 2nd healthy-looking one died within 24 hours of hatching.  Now I have 2 ducklings again.  It’s always good to have them as pairs.  I only had 8 duck eggs set in the incubator, 2 were infertile, 2 full-term failed to pip, 1 pipped but failed to hatch, and 1 died within 24 hours of hatching.

I got interested with ducklings when my massage therapist suggested the natural progression before I get a couple of goats or sheep is to try ducks first.  And ducklings are very cute.  Much cuter than baby chicks.  Since I only have two ducklings, I gotta have names for these fluffy yellow balls.  I don’t know their genders yet but the bigger one (first born) I suspect is a male (drake) and it is very bossy.  The smaller one is more reserved and possibly a female (hen).  I’m just guessing at this point.

I’m naming the bigger one Puff (the feisty first born) and the smaller one Squeek.  I helped Squeek crack the egg and it’s a miracle he/she survived.  Today, Squeek is 4 days old and Puff is 5 days old. 

Here’s the picture of Puff (the bossy one).  Look how big it is compared to the 5-day old baby chick.

And below is Squeek.  Trust me, it's not a toy.  It's a real duckling!  Ducks have permanent smile on their face.

And here's the video I took of Puff.

Since they live with 25 baby chicks, they probably think they are chickens, haha.  By the way the first picture below suggests, the heat lamp was too close to them that's why they are sleeping in circular position.  I pulled the heat lamp higher so they feel a lot cooler.

And I’ve introduced Squeek to Sweaty cat.  They seemed to get along.  

And below is the video of Sweaty Cat being introduced to Squeek (or the other way around).

 

Our cats don’t harm any chicks at all.  I’ve left the brooder open and had already 3 batches of hatchings.  One time I discovered the cat sleeping with them though and eating their food.  Not a good idea.  But he never harmed the baby chicks.

Their parents are Mr. & Mrs. Ducky.  This was taken this spring.  They made the eggs and I hatched them in my incubator.

On the other hand, Mrs. Ducky has not laid an egg for 3 straight days.  I’m wondering if she’s laying it somewhere else as I let them free-range all day.  It’s unusual because she should lay on a daily basis and her diet hasn’t changed at all.  Well, except now she’s eating more bugs.

Farewell Roosters

Roosters’ last day!

Today is the day I’ve been waiting for since the roosters had been messing with the hens and at one point killed a hen.  They are going to the local butcher shop.  It will cost me $3.35 per chicken to have them slaughtered and dressed.  It will be additional cents if I wanted them weighed but I don't need that as we will just eat them ourselves anyway or give away to family or friends.  

I have 13 roosters and I want to keep only one as a guard rooster.  However I’m torn apart which one I should keep.  I have to capture them tonight and put in boxes in preparation for delivery very early tomorrow morning (7 am).  I’d love to keep more than one as pets but the feed cost gets too expensive.  I have 44 laying hens at the moment and 21 growing chicks.  Based on statistics, it usually is 50/50 chance of hens and roosters so I might end up with 10 or 11 cockerels out of these 21 chicks.  Plus I have 38 eggs in the incubator expected to hatch this weekend and I plan to sell them and whatever doesn’t sell I will keep.

Anyway, the purpose of this blog is to decide which of these short-listed 3 roosters I should keep.  I’ve been thinking of keeping this one (pic below) because he is very light and it won’t be too much weight to bear for the hens when he breed them.  And I love the multi-colour as it looks unique.  This is a Dorking cross.  Easy to catch when needed and quite gentle.  However this is not a very good guard rooster in case there’s a hawk attack.  He’d be the first one to run away instead of defending the hens.

My second choice to keep is this one below.  He is also very beautiful.  From the very young age, he has been always tame and even let me put a ribbon costume on him last fall.  However, he’s a bit on the heavy side and it can injure a hen when he’s breeding.  But like the one above, he’s very efficient when breeding.  What I mean by that is unlike other roosters, he quickly dismounts the hen and pretty quick in breeding.  The others sometimes would remain standing on top of the hen even when they are finished doing it and causing the hen's back to bleed.

And my third choice is the rooster below.  He is a large Brahma mix breed.  I like the colour as it matches my other Columbian Rock hens.  He is also very friendly and very easy to catch if needed.  However he’s very heavy and not very efficient in breeding hens like the second one above.  His heavy weight can also injure the hens while breeding.  I like the feathers on his feet though.