Well thats gooddid you raise your female alone from a duckling?
They need a ton of attention, and can become really stressed when left alone.
Its not impossible, but its defiantly not an ideal situation
Oh my gosh @flossyfelix what an adorable baby.. You best start cuddling her before some of the rest of us come and get her. Looks like Runner to me too.And she will have to be at least 4-5 months old before she can be in close contact with Felix and Flossy but putting her into a pen where she and them can meet is always the first step in intros but keep her warm for now unless you have nice warm temps outside like high 70's she is to tiny to be out long. I have to agree I'd seriously think of calling a few more TSC in your area to see if they have more ducklings your lil one will do so much better with a bud. But Runners they are like inseparable mine are any way.
@Miss Lydia do you want to take a wild guess at what she is??
yes you certainly need at least one more
I just integrated my ducklings with my flock. They're 1 month old pekins. Basically what I did was I would let my 4 bigger ducks out of their night coop (they only sleep in it, and they free range all day) and then I would clean the coop and stick my month old ducklings in during the day. That way they could see my ducks and chickens, but couldn't be hurt. I did this for a week and the ducks became less crazy annoyed about the ducklings presence. (If I walked out of the house holding the pekin babies, the flock would quack up a storm!!)
Anyways, so once the original 4 got used to the 2 new additions, they had their first play date where they got to see each other outside of the coop (in my yard where they had enough room to get away) and the ducklings followed their new big sisters around the whole time!!! I let them play for about an hour and then everyone went back to their separate beds. (The ducklings would sleep in a dog crate in the garage).
Just 3 days ago, once I sensed that a friendship had sparked (they would all sit together in a clump and sleep in the sun, they would follow each other around, and would drink from the same bucket at the same time) I let the ducklings have their first night in the coop. Went great! Now they are completely integrated. No one is being bullied or picked at and the pekins (like pekins do) are getting big quickly!! So id have to disagree when people say you can't integrate until they are much older. I've done it twice at 4 weeks old. The first time integrating my Silkies with the first 4 ducklings and now with my pekin twins. It's a slow process that takes almost 2 weeks, but the ducklings are happier with the big ducks to hang out with than they were just the two of them and me.
Keep in mind that the temperatures here in Houston are very very warm (like 85 degrees), so that's how they are outside so early at only 4 weeks. They MUCH prefer it to the dog crate and my other ducks adore them. So do the chickens now
Sorry for picture quality! My back facing camera lens cracked...
But you can see by height which are the ducklings and all that.
