FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - WATERFOWL & GROUSE

Recently I was asked a question by a successful waterfowl breeder that surprised me in it's simplicity. Subsequent discussions with my wife and friends revealed that I might be able to provide a real service by sharing some of the most frequently asked questions and my best effort at providing answers. Bear in mind that my opinions are just that, opinions, and are by no means the final word on the subject, as I'm still learning. The answers provided are based on my personal experience, and advice from others I respect. I hope to add to these, and modify some, as more interesting questions arise, and as I learn more myself.

WATERFOWL FAQ

1. I was told that you cannot feed waterfowl medicated feed, is that true?

Answer: No, waterfowl are no different from any other bird in that regard. Medicated feed can be fed, but is generally not recommended unless your flock has a chronic (repeated) problem that you need to combat. The danger in feeding medicated feed when no specific medical problem exists is that you may be not only wasting money, but you may be encouraging the development of strains of bacteria resistant to that particular medication. When you really need it, it may no longer be effective.

2. When I lose a bird in one of my pens I usually put that whole pen on terrimycin or tetracycline, available at my local feed store for 2 or 3 days. Is that a good idea?

Answer: If that approach has been working out for you you've been really lucky; either that or you had an isolated loss without a widespread infection from one of the more contageous pathogens (bugs). When you get a prescription from a doctor for medicine for yourself you are always directed to "take them until they're gone". The reason for that is that even after you feel better, the illness for your body, though weakening, is still present in your tissues and available to reinfect. The objective of the full dose is to rid your body completely of that pathogen before it can become resistant to that drug. The exact same thing holds true for your birds and you're likely to pay a heavy price for abusing their antibiotics. If you must, due to economics or the unavailability of a veterinarian use over the counter antibiotics, then by all means read the package to find out how long that product should be administered. You should find that most will recommend at least 5 or 10 days of treatment to assure that all the birds are clean. Again, if you administer antibiotics for less than the recommended time, you run the risk of eliminating only the weakest of the bacteria present, leaving the strongest to multiply and reinfect with a resistance to the antibiotic you used.

3. Is it a good idea to leave rat and mouse bait stations out in and around your aviary all the time?

Answer: Some bird breeders seem to get away with that approach, but I sure don't seem to be able to get away with it. The approach that works best for me is to wait until the presence of rodents becomes apparent, either by finding burrows or rodent droppings. I then place bait stations at strategic locations in and around the aviaries that are along the pathways used by the rodents. For 7 to 10 days I bait the stations with good feed that the rodents find tasty, such as dry dogfood, trout chow or egg pellets. After it becomes apparent by the amount of feed dissappearing each night that many rodents are using the stations, I substitute a good rodentcide for the feed. I personnally have found a product called Havoc to be effective, although I'm sure there are others available. I continue the rodentcide until all signs of its use have stopped. Sometimes a few rodents will be found dead or staggering around as if they're drunk, but usually they seem to just dissapear. Shortly after the next rainstorm you'll notice that the burrows begin to cave in. I usually expedite this process after I'm sure the elimination is complete in order to deny ready-made homes for any new arrivals.

4. Weasels have disrupted my bird's breeding some years. Do you have any suggestions?

Answer: Weasels have definitely been a problem at my farm some spring seasons. They seem to have a severe impact on nesting attempts by sensitive species, such as light bellied (Atlantic) Brant. The presence of weasels bounding about has on occasion stopped all nesting by sensitive species, while the heartier species just seem to ignore them.
I'm still not sure whether they show up more in spring, looking for homes for their litters, or whether I just notice them more then because of their impact on my birds. I do know that if I eliminate their favorite rodent prey in February or March, that I have much less of a problem. I can't say if the cause is the absence of prey, or the fact that fewer rodent burrows are available to give them access past my electric fences. I suspect that it's a combination of the two. I do, on rare occasion find both rats and weasels dead on my electric fences. I believe their demise is caused by their counter-attack of the electric fence, as I usually find them hanging on it by their teeth. So much for their bad temper!
After weasels establish themselves at home in your pen, they often get quite bold, even during daylight hours. You will see them running along a fenceline, or out from under a nestbox. This characteristic makes them reasonably easy to dispatch if you're any good with a 22 or a pellet gun. Some people have good luck catching them in traps placed inside a dark length of pipe, as they like to use these passageways whenever they can.

5. Do you leave your nestboxes out all year, or put them out just shortly before breeding season?

Answer: Wow, is this a complicated one. The answer, even more so than the question. The simple answer is to recommend some of each, which is what I currently do. Doing so however, exposes you to occasional criticism by breeders with immaculate facilities, who wouldn't dream of making visitors look at old, mildew-coated nestboxes outside the breeding season. That criticism, though well-intended, should probably be ignored for some species, as studies seem to indicate that nest sites are on occasion selected months, or even a year before nesting commences. I can't personally vouch for this, but I do know that Harlequins and some others are known to practice "nest fidelity", which means they tend to nest in the same spot each year if previous nests were successful. Could it be that some breeders are actually discouraging nesting by moving difficult to breed species each year that they fail to nest?
Back to nest box installations, for common species such as most teal, pintails, widgeon, etc, I don't believe there is any advantage to leaving their ground nest boxes out all year, provided they are installed a few weeks before your nesting season. For many of the elevated cavity nesting species I think it may be a little more critical to have these nest structures installed at least a month before nesting should commence. I have found that my eiders and brant show a clear preference for nest structures that have been left in place through the winter, although I'm careful to install fresh nest material a month before nesting is anticipated.
A clear advantage of storing nest boxes indoors during the offseason is the fact that they will give you many more years of service, as the dampness around our ponds and freezing and thaw cycles clearly take a toll on them.

6.Do all waterfowl accept a mating where 2 or more females can be bred with 1 male ?

Answer:  No, wood ducks and mandarins pair devotedly, as do most teal, ducks and geese. A couple of  notable exceptions are muscovies,  which are polygamous, and King Eiders, where 1 drake seems perfectly capable of successfully mating with 3 or more hens. Putting in a second drake usually results in more competing than mating, and unsatisfactory fertility. One really unique pair bond arrangement is that of the Canvasback. In many, but not all, cases a female can be induced to successfully breed by allowing her access to 2 or more male suitors. These frequently finicky females seem to nest more readily if they find just the right mate. Isolating the pair after the female has made her preference obvious usually does the trick.

7.  How long can the high protein specialty feeds, made from fish and/or animal protein be safely stored?

Answer:  I'll answer to the best of my ability for the ones I use, as I've spoken with the manufacturers rep on the subject. In the case of the Mazuri Waterfowl Starter and Mazuri Seaduck Diets, containing fishmeal, they should be perfectly alright for at least 6 months from the manufacturing date on the bag. They are probably safe to use for an even longer time, however since the fats can begin to turn rancid it may affect their taste, and may put some of the rarer and more finicky species off their feed.



8. Which species of ducks and geese can be kept together safely?

Answer:  This is an impossible question to answer completely. It would be just a little easier if it was asked which ones cannot be kept together safely. A few species, like Cape Baron Geese, Comb Ducks, Blue Ducks and Steamer Ducks are obviously too aggressive to be safely kept in a mixed flock. Many species, however, can become suddenly deadly during the breeding season in defense of their mates, their nests, or their young. I've heard reports of such aggression in Black ducks,  Goldeneyes, American Mergansers, Canada Geese, Bar Headed Geese and Trumpeter Swans. 
I think I'll summarize by advising new waterfowl keepers to monitor any mixed flock for this kind of aggression during the breeding season and when adding new birds to a flock.

9.  Do you believe in double clutching your waterfowl?

Answer:   Here's a confusing answer, yes and no! With many of the easier to breed common species double clutching seems to do no harm at all. In others, such as spectacled eiders it appears to exhaust the female, causing health problems later that year. There also are species, like harlequins that practice "nest fidelity", or loyalty to a particular nest site year after year. In their case, taking an entire clutch can force them to abandon their nesting. If your objective is to maximize production and profits, then I suggest you go ahead and double clutch those species you are sure will not be affected.

10.  Which type of incubation do you recommend, bantam hen or electric incubators?

Answer:  For those of you who love electronics and technology, artificial incubation may be just the ticket, especially if you can afford one of the newer, all electronically controlled incubators. Others, less inclined to totally trust technology may be better off using a combination of broody bantams and one of the less sophisticated and expensive incubators for the last 2 to 7 days of incubation. A primary reason this works so well is that bantams seem so well adapted to automatically regulating humidity, except in the most extreme of cases. I use the bantam and incubator combination extensively, and now have very few cases of grouse or waterfowl eggs that fail to hatch and then die due to temperature and humidity problems. I am a big believer in lightly spraying waterfowl eggs daily for the last couple of days, starting when the duckling breaks through into the air sack.

11.  How long do you recommend dry brooding ducklings, and then how long for wet brooding, before moving them outdoors?

Answer:   Dry brooding and wet brooding periods vary from species to species, and sometimes even from brood to brood. In general, when ducklings are eating well and starting to grow vigorously, they are ready for the move to a wet brooder. If they "soak up" for more than the first few hours, or seem unhappy, it may be wise to give them another day or two in the dry brooder. For this reason I leave their dry brooder set up for up to a day after I move them, just in case....
Moving outdoors is also a "judgment call", depending on how rugged they seem. At this point, ducklings that are not robust, still soaking up, or extremely nervous may need to be "held back" for a few days.

12. Paul, since you live in an area known for its Great Horned Owls, hawks and eagles how do you protect your waterfowl from these avian predators?

Answer:   I have had very few instances of hawks taking my flightless waterfowl in my open topped aviaries. A couple of notable exceptions have been a Red Tailed Hawk that killed a Red Breasted Goose several years ago, and an occasional Coopers Hawk that swoops in low over the fences ,looking for a small meal, such as a teal or other small, duck. The Red Tail most have been migrating through, as he never returned, and I now keep all of my smaller waterfowl in my covered aviaries, especially during fall and winter, when the hawks are the most numerous.
If I was trying to discourage a hawk or eagle, both protected species in the US, I would use cracker shells, small explosive devices in a 12 gauge shotgun shell, designed to help farmers keep marauding birds out of their crops. 
Great Horned Owls are a much more serious matter, as they can raid in the middle of the night, and a proficient one can take many of your unprotected waterfowl. I have cut my Owl losses from over 10% to under 1% using a combination of methods. My most effective deterrent has been the use of a few floodlights pointed skyward in the general direction you would expect owls to approach. For a 1 acre enclosure I generally use two lights at opposite ends of the enclosure. They help by allowing at least one awake bird in the enclosure to sound an alarm in time for the rest to wake up and take evasive action, usually by diving underwater repeatedly. Another method that seems to help somewhat is the use of the Oakwood Farms red flashing lights, advertised in gamebird breeding magazines and on the internet.. I suspect the idea there is to cause the owl to be cautious because it doesn't understand the light, and this method appears to help, at least for a while, which may be enough to allow a migrating owl to move on. I'm not sure it would be as effective for a local owl. A third method that I used to use, that took a bit more maintenance, was to string tout electric fence wire in a few places over the aviary. These wires would "twang" when contacted by the wing tip of an owl or other avian predator, alerting the resident birds. A definite disadvantage of this method is that snow load or repeated stretching by wind or bird strikes can cause the wires to stretch. You can imagine what a hazard they become to people if they sag to head or neck height. I also used to worry that one would break the wing of a bird on impact, but that never became a problem, at least on my farm. The biggest disadvantage of this method is that local resident predators seemed to figure it out, and easily avoided the wires. 
If you still have a problem after installing a couple of the above methods, I suggest that you plan occasional walks during the night, armed with a powerful flashlight and cracker shells, and try the discouraging tactic I've described for hawks. When you see or hear an owl, you simply fire one of the cracker shells in its general direction. This seems to work fairly well, at least for a while.

13.  I notice that you have large open-topped pens for most of your geese and some of your ducks. Do you have many wild visitors, and do you find that they introduce parasites and disease into your captive flocks?

Answer:  Depending on the time of year, I can have anywhere from none to hundreds of native wild waterfowl visitors at my facilities. At first I worried a lot about the introduction of parasites and disease, especially to my fairly rare captive flocks of both Pacific and Atlantic Brant. With the exception of gapeworm introduced by visiting Canada Geese it has turned out not to be a problem. 
Each year an inspector comes from our state veterinary office to collect fecal, blood and water samples from my flocks and enclosures to facilitate renewal of my NPIP certification for the farm.  So far these inspections and the resulting lab tests have shown no positive results for the presence of the more contagious poultry type diseases. Although it's an added expense each year it has given me a good measure of comfort, along with the necropsies my veterinarian performs on any of the rarer waterfowl and grouse that die.  So far so good!

14.  How do you handle freezing ponds during the winter months, or do you move your waterfowl indoors?

Answer:   Here on the northwest coast we're really fortunate when it comes to winter weather. It's a rare thing for us to get more than a week of freezing weather in a row. Only one year out of 8 or 10 will we have ice on our ponds thick enough to walk on. Over the years I've experimented with several methods of keeping open water areas for my waterfowl, but finally settled on one that seems ideal for local conditions. I simply use ¼ to ½ horsepower submersible utility pumps to bring warmer water up and spray it across the surface. Since my ponds are only 2 to 3 feet deep, and have soft mud bottoms I have to keep the pumps elevated from the bottom. To do this I drive metal posts into the bottom and then hang the pumps from these posts. The birds initially are frightened by the spraying water, but get over it fast. The first time each winter that I turn on the pumps I do it well before dark to give them time to adjust.






GROUSE FAQ

1.. Why is it so difficult to find anyone willing to sell Ruffed Grouse eggs or chicks?

Answer: There are very few breeders in North America who succeed in breeding and rearing Ruffed Grouse for more than just a few years. One of the reasons is that you need to hold back enough of your own young birds of each sex each year to replace losses of your breeders, which can be expected to be as high as 20% in a bad year, even worse in the event a wild bird or rodent introduces a virus. For that reason all the grouse breeders I know like to raise all their own young and sex them before deciding how many they can part with for that year.
Another big factor in not shipping eggs is that many of us feel it would be unfair to our customers.  The fertility of Ruffed Grouse eggs in captivity is often poor, possibly because the female does not have free choice of which male she wished to mate with, like she would in a wild situation, where she approaches the drumming log of the male she selects. Another even more important reason may be that in an aviary situation the male often gets overly aggressive, causing the hen to "run for cover" whenever the male shows any interest.

2. My grouse and quail have on occasion died from a condition called sour crop. Can anything be done to save them.

Answer: Until recently I had no success with sour crop in my grouse. Recently I have made a real effort to begin treatment early, before the bird has begun to lose weight.
Sour crop is frequently caused by a parasite called cappilaria, or cropworms. This parasite can result in a bird being unable to pass food and drink through its crop, and results in the bird gradually starving to death. If a bird is found to be listless, feel its crop (located below its neck) to see if it feels like it's bloated with food and water. If it is, I take the bird out of the pen, and holding it upside down, I slowly press on the crop to force the slurry slowly out of its mouth. I usually can get approximately 3/4 to 4/5ths of it out. You need to be careful to make sure not to turn the bird right-side-up until you are finished, or you run the risk of killing it by drowning. Immediately take a break if it appears to be having trouble breathing. Once you have finished draining its crop, use a metal feeding tube and syringe to inject 15 units (15/100 cc) of panacur liquid wormer down its throat. This draining and application of panacur must be repeated at approximate 24 hour intervals for three days. What you are accomplishing is banking on the assumption that there is still a very small movement of fluids out of its crop, and into its digestive system. The objective is to kill all the parasites with the panacur and gradually allow the crop to move naturally again.
Since I'm a belts and suspenders type of guy I like to cover my bets the best I can. For this reason, although it may be unnecessary, on the day I start treatment with the panacur I also inject the bird with 1 unit/pound body weight of ivermectin injectable in the breast muscle. Ivermectin is an effective wormer against a good number of blood-sucking parasites.
In order to totally eliminate all parasites, including those that were still in eggs when the first treatment was done, it's important to repeat the treatment again in 10 days.

3. How do you keep grouse from getting injured or killed by flying into their fence wire?

Answer: This is usually caused by a predator coming too close to their aviary, or an aggressive male grouse pursuing the female.
Ground predators are usually kept at bay by electric fencing around the periphery of the pens 12 to 18 inches off the ground. In the event that dogs or coyotes, etc. are still causing a problem by running past at a short distance, then electric fence wires can be added, also 12 to 18 inches from the ground that radiate outward 10 to 20 feet from the aviary. This approach should be avoided if children or strangers are likely to come in contact with the wires.
Not too much can be done legally if your problem is an avian predator such as a Coopers Hawk or Great Horned Owl that flies against your fencing. If they sit on the top of your pens, then the electric fencing can also be installed there, above any solid supports that might look like a convenient perch. 
Some aviculturists have installed a second pen top, made of soft netting under the outer pen top, to lessen the danger of high speed broken necks. This works, but has been known to result in deaths due to hanging when birds become entangled. 
My favorite idea, both to offer your birds a feeling of security from marauding predators, and to allow females to hide from aggressive males, is to install a variety of thick hiding places made from discarded Christmas trees. This has the added advantage of providing ready nesting sites.



4. If a member of a pair dies, how do you add a new mate without having it harassed and killed?

Answer: This is a prevalent problem with grouse and can also be with some pheasants and quail. By far the best method is to remove the remaining mate from the pen and after giving the pen a good cleaning add entirely new birds both male and female at the same time. This way, neither bird will be inclined to "defend it's territory" for a short while, giving both an opportunity to get familiar with roosts, feed and water locations, and hiding places. When one does get aggressive (either male or female) the other can then be prepared.
When aggression occurs, it is far better (for future fertility) if it is the male, then if it is the female being aggressive. Successful long-lasting pair bonds often result from a female that escapes a male's aggression, but eventually submits to his amorous courtship attempts. On the other hand, aggressive
females are rarely successfully fertilized by submissive males.

5.  Is it a good idea to feed fruit, peanuts and greens to my grouse?

Answer:  When I first started keeping grouse some 15 to 18 years ago there was no good reference material available on what to feed, and what not to feed grouse species, and that's still pretty much true today. Like most new breeders I was sure I needed to try something different in order to achieve the "big breakthrough", and have consistent success keeping and breeding them. One of my first ideas was to supplement their commercial feed diet with daily rations of fruit and greens, and an occasional treat of raw peanuts. The greens, especially during the nesting season, proved to have great benefit and are still fed, while the fruit and peanuts were a mistake.
The fruit, in my case half apples hung on nails in each pen, caused a percentage of the grouse to develop yeast infections in their sinuses. This proved to be an almost incurable condition, probably caused by the sugars in the fruit. In the case of the peanuts the results were much more difficult to assess. It seems that as their fondness for the peanuts increased, they would search their aviary for anything that looked even remotely like a peanut. Unfortunately I had to lose several birds to impaction of their gizzards before I wised up and stopped feeding them peanuts. 



6.  Do you recommend letting grouse eggs hatch under broody bantams?

Answer:   My simple answer would have to be no, but bear in mind that in a few cases I've accidentally forgotten a hatch and had it turn out alright. I do, however, consider those cases to be the exception, rather than the rule.
The reasons I don't recommend it are as follows:
* Some bantams seem to sense, probably due to the hatchling's vocalizations that they are not chickens and will proceed to kill or desert the chicks.
* The possibility exists for parasites, such as mites or for bacteria to be transferred from the bantam to the grouse chicks after hatching.
* In many cases if the grouse chick get to know a foster mother it may be difficult to separate them, and to get the chicks to eat once you do.



7. Wild Ruffed Grouse populations in the northern US and in Canada are widely believed to cycle up and down in approximately 7 year cycles. Have you seen any indications of this in captive grouse?

Answer:   No, I haven't seen any indication of population cycles in my captive Ruffed Grouse. I feel this makes sense, as many of the grouse professionals I've met at the WPA grouse symposiums believe that the cycles are caused by concurrent or preceding cycles in the bird's predators and/or parasites, and possibly to some degree, even by availability of other prey species.
Since a big part of successful captive breeding is controlling parasites and predators, it makes sense that such cycles would be reduced or eliminated. While this phenomenon doesn't prove the cause of cycles, it demonstrates that they are probably caused by factors external to the birds themselves, removing some of the mystery.



8.  Do you experience the "crazy flight" phenomenon in your captive Ruffed Grouse?

Answer:  No, although I'm sure I would if I wasn't careful to separate my young grouse each fall, as they begin to get independent. At this point in the wild the broods are breaking up, and each bird has to find its own territory. This behavior is called "fall dispersal", and serves the species by assuring that the broods get mixed together across the available habitat, minimizing the possibility of inbreeding. 
At this time in their lives each grouse suddenly is exposed to aggression by its fellow grouse, even its own siblings and parents. As a result, many of them wildly "take off" for parts unknown. As they move from place to place they are repeatedly harassed by grouse already there, and search on.  During this period some have been known to wildly crash through windows, impale themselves on objects and become "road pizza", thus the term crazy flight.



9.   Why is it that no one seems to be able to successfully establish a wild population of Ruffed Grouse using captive reared birds?

Answer:  You are absolutely right that efforts so far to establish wild populations from captive Ruffed Grouse have failed, at least to date.  I personally believe that there are many reasons, but I will describe some of the ones I feel are the most important.
*  Most suitable Grouse habitats are already at their "carrying capacity", so any new grouse released are simply driven out to the marginal habitat where they lead a meager existence until killed by a predator.  Some releases of wild trapped grouse have succeeded when they were introduced to restored forests they could not have found on their own.  Bear in mind though, that these were strong flying wild birds already well versed in avoiding predators, and experienced at finding food sources.
*  Unlike ringneck pheasants and valley quail, ruffed grouse in captivity get extremely tame and lose all of their fear of man and other creatures (dogs, etc.) that they get used to.  Once released these birds are at a great disadvantage. Also, having been raised in an aviary of limited size they just haven't got the flight strength to outrun the hawks that come a-hunting.  This was the determined as a result of a release study done with released captive sharptails a number of years ago in eastern Washington state, but would be equally true for ruffed grouse.
*  In each section of their natural range the local population of ruffed grouse have evolved dominant plumage colors to match their habitat, especially the forest floor in winter.  This characteristic, and their ability to "freeze" at the first sign of danger is what gives them some protection from all the many hawks that consider grouse a favorite prey.  As an example, the deep red birds from our rain forests on the pacific coast wouldn't stand a chance when released in a more inland forest where both the forest floor (pine needles, leaves, etc) and the indigenous grouse are a more gray color. Also I've noticed that our local subspecies is slightly larger and "blockier" than those we've kept from the east and midwest.  Although just a guess, I suspect this is because in our heavily vegetated rain forest they don't need to fly nearly as far to escape danger.
*  In Europe some transplants of black grouse and capercaillie have failed, even with wild trapped birds.  Subsequent studies claimed that gut length was one of the causes of the failures of these birds to establish populations.   Apparently their gut length had evolved gradually to handle the food supplies in their native area, and when moved great distances to areas with different vegetation, their digestive systems couldn't handle the new food supply.   Subsequent transplants of birds from more local areas with similar vegetation were more successful.  I can't prove this, but it wouldn't surprise me if our American grouse were similarly limited. Who can say what a captive diet does to gut length over several generations?  
*  Here in Washington State no new permits to keep, breed and sell native grouse have been issued for many years.  Only a few of us who had permits at the time they were stopped were "grandfathered in".  It's important for anyone wishing to raise or release grouse to check their local regulations.  One of the fears expressed by some wildlife professionals is the danger of disease transmission to wild grouse from captive released birds.  While I know of no studies completed to dispel of reinforce this fear, I suspect the danger in ruffed grouse is relatively minor as they are very solitary birds, and rarely if ever flock up.  In the case of wild turkeys, or even sharptail grouse or ptarmigans, birds that do tend to congregate in flocks, this concern is probably more justified.