6 Miniature Appleyard eggs - advice welcome

[Holonomic]

That looks great! We were not planning on giving them access to a pond while in their run however I was thinking about building one for them which they can use when out of the run (this would be next year though). I was planning on having a drain running off into the rear of the garden to allow us to quickly drain it when cleaning but I have not put much thought into that. Still planning the duck run - the shed is up but deciding between using aviary panels or building a framed run. I keep flip flopping between the two.

Aviary panels would be better to adjust if the 12' x 6' run turns out to be too small and also cheaper/easier to get up. But the framed run would be stronger and nicer to look at
We have the neighbours cats to keep out as well as the odd fox so we also need to roof the run.

I would love to take you up on the offer of the rental, that would have been ideal however with the lock down I am not sure I would want to risk travelling to you (we are in the west-midlands, so a little too far to travel - also wouldn't want to upset your chick with that journey.
They look really cute!

May I ask what you do with the ducks you end up removing?

 

[Dees ducks]

That looks great! We were not planning on giving them access to a pond while in their run however I was thinking about building one for them which they can use when out of the run (this would be next year though). I was planning on having a drain running off into the rear of the garden to allow us to quickly drain it when cleaning but I have not put much thought into that. Still planning the duck run - the shed is up but deciding between using aviary panels or building a framed run. I keep flip flopping between the two.

Aviary panels would be better to adjust if the 12' x 6' run turns out to be too small and also cheaper/easier to get up. But the framed run would be stronger and nicer to look at
We have the neighbours cats to keep out as well as the odd fox so we also need to roof the run.

I would love to take you up on the offer of the rental, that would have been ideal however with the lock down I am not sure I would want to risk travelling to you (we are in the west-midlands, so a little too far to travel - also wouldn't want to upset your chick with that journey.
They look really cute!

May I ask what you do with the ducks you end up removing?

Hi, I've sold all of my ducks that were surplus to requirements. It broke my heat though would have loved to have kept all of them but have to be realistic about the size of my flock. I am going to keep 2 out of the 6 new borns and sell the other 4. That will bring my flock up to 9 which is totally my maximum now as I haven't got any more garden to give them!

 

[Holonomic]

Just a quick update:

So the little fella is doing well - s/he is so lovely, but is increasingly becoming more lonely.
I feel quite bad as it was not our intention to only have the one duckling at this stage, we were sitting around the table last night and my partner pointed out s/he was getting louder... I replied with, "no - it is getting closer" and quickly dashed up stairs to find a little duckling making his way down a step/fall at a time.
Luckily he didn't injure himself but I was shocked that s/he managed to get out of the brooder. We were using a plastic storage tub which was around 20" deep - I can only assume it managed to jump out after climbing up onto the brooder heater and then onto the stilt and out... anyways, we have not moved him to the larger "brooder" I had planned to use once we had more ducklings - a large corner cabinet.
As I said, s/he didn't seem to be hurt but doesn't seem to settle unless on one of our laps!

We have put a mirror and a toy in the brooder but other than 20minutes of running towards the mirror and back on repeat it doesn't seem to have done much to settle the little guy/gal down. I am trying to spend as much time as I can to comfort it but with me working and my partner looking after our daughter in the day it is quite difficult to do so!

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The next 6 eggs are due in 10 days -unfortunately we lost 1 today after I noticed it smelt pretty awful! I think there may have been a hair line crack and allowed some bacteria into it?
Hopefully it has not affected the other 5!?!

 

[Holonomic]

A couple of pictures of his current home - please excuse the mess around the water

I have ordered a feeder and drinker which should be here this week, hopefully this tames the mess a little