Advice needed for 9 Pekin and 3 Rouen Ducklings

[anniele27]

Hi! I'm new to duck raising and this website but from what I've seen it looks like this is a very helpful community. I have 12 ducklings that are about 8 days old and I am wondering when I can start letting them go outside. This weekend we are supposed to get temperatures of high 70's so I'd like them to be able to enjoy the weather (they are now in our garage). We have a large dog pen that will be set up for them with water and such inside and they will be monitored the entire time. So what do you think? How soon can I let them outside? (The picture is them in their current inside pen)

 

[anniele27]

I'm just afraid they'll get bored. We let them swim for a bit inside but besides that they don't get much entertainment

 

[Amiga]

Oh, they will entertain each other. I raised eleven runners together. As long as you spend a bit of time with them, offer some treats once they have had a little chick grit, they seem fine. Just set up a seat in or near the brooder (ours was big enough for me to sit in) and talk to them, sing to them.

Some folks have enrichment activities with their ducklings. I used to hang a small rope tied VERY securely to the top of the brooder wall, so that it hung just above Einz's head. She would play and play with that rope. But I made sure it could not come loose - I had visions of her swallowing it and choking on it.

Aside from that, my ducklings used to make their own fun - they would fling their poop, run around the brooder before dropping into a nap, stand up on their tippy toes and flap their tiny wings, run back and forth between the food and the water, filling the waterer with food before splashing as much water out of the waterer as fast as they could.

When I tried puppy pads, they would figure out how to get to them, and try to eat the absorbent material out of them.

I think 8 days old, 70s is a little coolish yet.