A few duck 101 questions....

[dpenning]

 

[dpenning]

The night time pic shows the brooder setup.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I like your lighting cute. They are adorable

 

[dpenning]

I like your lighting cute. They are adorable

LOL, thanks. That was leftover from when I had quail in there. I felt like it was too dark since it is only open on two sides and sits in a larger dog run that is covered and under a tree.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I can see they are liking the sunshine coming in the window too. such sweeties I love ducklings/ducks your lil chicks just blend in so well all the same color.

 

[6sablehens]

View attachment 1493082 View attachment 1493084

Oh they are just adorable!
Love the brooder.

 

[dpenning]

Thanks! Would it be ok to put the powder from a 500 mg niacin capsule into the waterer every day? There are 4 ducks and 3 chicks. I don't want to harm the chicks. I think the ducks would get more of the supplement that way tho.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Probably be okay just keep it mixed seems it wants to settle. I don’t think it will hurt the chicks all my birds get nutritional yeast when I put it in the feed that includes any chicks I may have at the time. Use a gallon of water with the capsule and can’t be time released or flush free

 

[harmesonfarm]

I do regular old towels for the first week or so, then when I move them outside switch to pine shavings. If they are already outside as its warm enough, then I would do pine shavings from the first few days onwards.
I avoid paper towel as I found they just soaked it through in seconds, regular old towels held up to more of a whole day.

As for food, you can feed them chick starter as long as you are supplying extra niacin or B-Vitamins. I use Brewers yeast as it contains a large range of the B-Vitamins and not just niacin. I do this because where I am, duckling starter or even duck feed are not available so I feed all my ages chicken feed with supplementation.

I do a shallow dish of water for them to sit the first week daily, when they are out of the brooder for short periods of time with supervision. After about a week, when I move them to the larger penned areas outside, I provide them with their own shallow dish 24/7 so they don't go sitting about in the waterer (though the way it is designed makes it hard, they will still try and end up pooping in it of course).

As for the Pekin specific question, I am unsure. All we have are Cayugas.

Have fun with the babies! I love ducklings (and ducks in general) they are by far my favourite poultry to have.

 

[CayugaJana]

Thanks! Would it be ok to put the powder from a 500 mg niacin capsule into the waterer every day? There are 4 ducks and 3 chicks. I don't want to harm the chicks. I think the ducks would get more of the supplement that way tho.

The ducks will waste a lot of the water anyway. So I think you will be fine. Niacin isn’t really something that builds up in the system. When they pee and poop, the excess goes right out. They will be just fine.