The journey into the abyss of no return

[farmerjan]

Yep, cow crap is "crappy"..... feel for you trying to get lights fixed like that with them still in there... At least empty you could take a hose and get the bulk of the wet stuff washed off....

So glad to hear that you can get all your own water there from your own property and not have to haul it from town or where ever you were getting it before. I am assuming you have a cistern in the root cellar so it will not freeze during your terrible cold in the winter time... and will use up the totes for the ducks before it freezes so as to not bust the totes. They do degrade in the sun and will get brittle and break or crack and split... Have had several over the years here that wind up splitting...

We are getting desperately needed rain... had a 1/2 inch in gauge earlier and still raining... it did not let up this evening early enough to see much, so will go to the calf barn in the morning...

 

[Mini Horses]

I rarely get deep freeze here but, cold enough!! My lines in barn have heat tapes, covered with pipe insulation and normally not an issue. But we leave water dripping at DD house in bad cold. She's only one that needs the water to travel....otherwise, I'd cut it off at house to barn. But that then feeds to all lower fields & her house, underground.

 

[Baymule]

I was thinking that’s so cool until I saw the price. Those idiot yay-hoos have no idea who they are messing with.

 

[Mini Horses]

Wow ... I didn't look at price.

 

[farmerjan]

I admire the tenacity for a system that sophisticated... AND... this is also a way to get concrete evidence if they start to do more stupid stuff...
One question... do you have up NO TRESPASSING signs? Only reason I ask is that here you have to have the signs to be able to LEGALLY have people charged with trespassing.... most everyone has them on their fences near gateways and such on their pastures... it them covers them to be able to legally have people charged..... You know so much about all those things, but something as simple as that might have slid under your radar.

How old are the ducks? Didn't you say they were laying last winter? After they get to be 1 1/2 or 2, they will slack off laying alot more... Plus, they are "wired" to lay in the spring, and after laying all year they just might be "shutting down" for the cold. AND have they molted all their feathers yet?
Most pullets (chickens) will come into production at about 20-24 weeks... so spring born will lay through the winter, once they hit that 6 month of age,...as long as they get sufficient light... and will lay for about a year then molt. In the more prolific egg producing breeds, they will lay decent but not near as much the 2nd year... after that egg production will drop significantly. One reason why so many egg producing farms will change out and bring new ready to lay pullets in every year or no later than every other year. It does not pay a poultry producer to keep them past the 2nd year... they are eating feed but they will produce less than half and it is not economically practical.
On top of that your ducks have been traumatized... they may not come back into production.

 

[SageHill]

I’m with @farmerjan on this, the ducks are going into a time off, slack off production mode.. I’ve never had ducks, but I’ve had chickens for over 30 yrs and that’s what they do. Yeah - to the point of not laying when I need the eggs the most - Christmas baking! I just culled our chickens - egg eater chicken started their downfall. I now have five 5 month old chickens and <cough> had to buy eggs at Costco - OMG the large eggs are way small - rip off. Can hardly wait until the new chickens start to lay.

 

[farmerjan]

It is possible they may not come back much.... these are Khaki Campbells right? They are among the more "laying" of the breeds of ducks. But, we usually figure at least 2-3 months from molting to back to laying on most chickens... so they may still come back to laying in another month... the trauma may affect them in delayed laying response also...
I don't know what would be the best advice on them... I think I would give them another month or so.... and hopefully no more traumatic upsets...
I figured you had covered the "no trespassing" sign thing... sometimes the simplest things can get overlooked... so I thought I would mention it...

 

[Mini Horses]

An MIA drone??? Wonder hmmmm

 

[SageHill]

Oh wait --- put little tracking collars on them!!! (warped sense of humor kicking in)

 

[Baymule]

Give them some time. It takes a lot out of a layer to molt and grow in new feathers. That’s a lot of protein in those feathers, and now winter and shorter days are coming on. They laid all through winter last year because they had just started laying. This year they have molted and you may have to wait for longer days or provide light. Hint on the light, turn it on early in the mornings, so as daylight happens, it’s a continuous flow of light. Providing extra light in the evening, then lights out, doesn’t give that evening dusk to get settled for the night.

I don’t know if that applies to ducks, but it sure applies to chickens. Chickens go to roost for the night and sudden lights out leaves them lost and confused.

Molting and resulting in no eggs for 3 months was not fun. Store bought eggs can’t compare with REAL eggs. I used to buy 6 chicks every spring. They started laying in the fall, laid all winter and the next summer, then molted in the fall. That was group one. In the spring I bought 6 more chicks, different color. Group 2. They started laying in the fall, taking up the slack for group 1. Group 1 came back into lay in the spring. In the spring I bought 6 more chicks, group 3. They started laying in the fall. Group 1 and 2 molted and quit laying. Group 1 got butchered and put in the freezer. Old laying hens make delicious soup, among other things. In spring, rinse, repeat.

Each spring I bought 6 chicks, each fall I butchered 6 hens. I used sex links as they lay like crazy for 2 seasons, then slack off to half or less.

I really ought to get chickens again.