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Call Ducks

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 4:09 pm
by WaupoosCowgirl
We have pet quality call ducks and they are so much fun to watch and cute to boot! All of our chickens and other livestock are over at the barn (we are two farm widths wide) on one side of the farm but the ducks are lucky enough to live in our dooryard. We built a pen for them last april and this is the first winter we have had them. I started out with a pair of Snowies and a pair of Magpies and one female white. Two of the females shared a nest and laid 16 eggs that they set on. Ultimately 6 of these hatched and 3 survived and guess what they are all drakes! Anyway that brought us up to 8 ducks and just after christmas I didn't get home from the mall before dark to lock them up and three disappeared (we figure an Owl...there is one that hangs around). So now I have the original white female (pickles, who has been on the school bus and to the fair-she is my daughters pride and joy) and the original Snowy female and the original grey magpie drake along with the two remaining drakes from the hatch.

I have been smuggling over my Orpingtons (only have 4, one roo, 3 hens) one bird at a time under the cover of darkness and putting them in the coop with the ducks....help keep each other warm.

anyway I just thought I would start of the waterfowl section, see who else had call ducks.

Re: Call Ducks

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 5:58 pm
by thegawd
Calls are awesome! I have a trio of greys just for fun and I just love watching them be ducks. I recently set them up with a pond and it was the first time that they have really had the opportunity to swim!

Re: Call Ducks

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 7:29 pm
by windwalkingwolf
Calls are adorable. All Drake hatch, arrgh LOL...but it happens. Better get a plan in place for the extras, because they'll start to wear on the girls just like having too many roosters, and you'll have lots more hatch out this year.

Re: Call Ducks

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 8:57 pm
by Gone Country Farms
I got a trio of greys two blue fawn males and a pair of whites. Just starting to get eggs from the greys!!! Hoping to hatch lots of them this year!

Call Ducks

Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 11:09 am
by WaupoosCowgirl
Question about call duck egg colour..I am getting very pretty light green egg shells this year...last year same ducks the eggs were just a very pale cream. Is this a maturity thing?

Call Ducks

Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 1:20 pm
by Doug The Chickenman
Ours since we got them were a pail green color.

Call Ducks

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 8:54 pm
by hiddenbirch
These are so cute. I'd love a trio or quad. Just need to find someone nearby who has them? Anyone?

Call Ducks

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 9:05 pm
by Micah and Kiah
I have two pairs of grey calls. OK I DON'T. They belong to my 8 year old nephew but they live at our farm. He adores them. Loves studying them.Knows them all apart. They've just started laying eggs and he can't wait for ducklings

Call Ducks

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 9:15 pm
by baronrenfrew
20 years ago I bought a pair of greys at a spring auction, $35. I raised three ducklings, two hens and a male, and one hen was small, not a dwarf, but 2/3 the size of mama. from the original pair the male was injured, so I sold the young pair at a fall auction, gave away the injured male, and brought the two remaining hens : mama and small daughter (and other birds) to the spring EBBA auction. I sold them in separate boxes, arrived at the hall at 5:30 am, walked in the door at 7am, and had a choice: take lot 1, or lot 35. i wanted the money so I could buy other birds at the auction, hopefully a pair of geese (typically $100) so I took lot 1. so mother and daughter started quacking up a storm, the little daughter with a higher pitched voice. a bidding war occurred: I got $175 for mama and $225 for daughter. i bought some geese and left feeling like I'd won the lottery. I haven't had calls since as I free range everything in late summer (house is far from the road) and I find the calls don't compete for food vs the chickens. one day I'll have some again, a month ago I bought some rouens and I love the quacking!

Call Ducks

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 9:34 pm
by thegawd
Thats crazy Baron! who woulda thought eh? sounds like they were winning birds!

I just love watching them be ducks! I keep trying to get a pic of them dabbling upside down in the water and keep missing.
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