The Duck Chronicles Episode Seven – Water from Heaven
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Today on The Duck Chronicles Episode Seven – Water from Heaven. We have another great day of gains on the weight.
From our 20 duck sample we have gone from 3.535 to 4.165 ounces for a per duck gain of .63 ounces. That is a 17.82% gain in 24 hours.
Additionally when we look at total gain across 50 ducklings in total these little girls have 7.36 pound total in 5 days. It is now getting to the point where you can feel the difference in muscle tone when you pick them up.
A few days ago they felt so delicate and you fears squishing them. They now feel like fuzz covered muscle!
A pattern also seems to be emerging as such, these numbers are rounded off.
- Day One Gain 29%
- Day Two Gain 17%
- Day Three Gain 30%
- Day Four Gain 18%
Additionally we discuss the water capacity of the short metal feeders. They hold just about a half a liter each. That is a bit over two cups and that is not filling them all the way to the top.
I would not recommend a straw bail brooder, as they would make good predator habitats. I have built all my brooders off the ground at this point as I had a single rat pack off about 14 broiler chicks an hour. I lost 120 sexlinks in a single night due to one rat that killed them and packed them in a wall. Concrete walls would be your best bet, my place was not suitable for that so I built brooder tables with lids.
Yep my thoughts as well. I see a poured or cinder filled wall. All thread on the tops and framed wood with HEAVY hardware cloth on the top. Drop the frame on and hand screw a nut on the all thread. Good luck rats!
Last year I lost 28 of 29 chicks I hatched to one rat in one night. We had the brooder screened and weighed down but the screen wasn’t tough enough and the prick chewed though it. I got the prick with a glue trap and felt no sorrow when I flattened him with a rubber mallet!
So far I have had luck with the 14 guage .5″x1″ welded hardware cloth, although, the legs of the brooder are recessed so the rats might not even be getting on top. All forms of traps have become useless at this point so I just flood them out of their holes and shoot them with the 12 guage. Things went boardline Caddyshack last season when the rats started going after larger birds.