OneEggToRuleThemAll
Songster
Hi there! Happy Sunday!
I'm attaching a photo of my 5-week old blue bibbed (?) runner ducklings, which I received from a nice family down in South Florida who hatched eggs from their own happy backyard ducks. Their big feathers are coming in WAY faster than my first batch of (Metzer) ducklings, who weren't fully feathered til around 10 weeks!! The runners go outside with my four fully feathered 12-week old ducks during most days now. The two groups remain in separate flocks throughout the day in their 1000-sq ft duck pen that surrounds the coop, and the older girls are still chasing the babies around with their heads down low to the ground and their beaks wide open lol. I am still taking the runner ducklings inside to sleep at night, and they've only been in the coop (inside a circular puppy playpen) with the big ducks once, last week, and seemed really scared so we haven't yet tried it again.
Anyway, I'm so over brooding in the house--I'm buying two of those big bags of the horse bedding pine pellets from TSC every 2-3 days. My house stinks like a barn. I've already decided that future ducklings will be hatched and brooded by Muscovy mamas because brooding ducklings in the house is just too much work + stinky.
I'm in Northeast Florida, with lows in the mid-40s/50s and highs in the 60s/70s this upcoming week. Do my runners look fully feathered enough to sleep outside in the hoop coop (photos attached)? They still have some down fluff, but most of their big feathers are in, and when they swim in the pool, the water just beads right off their feathers.
When they ARE ready to sleep outside, I'd love some advice on how best to get the two flocks acclimated to each other. I have a dog crate that they could sleep in, inside the hoop coop...I could put another tarp over the top of the coop to protect more floor space from rain. But there are five runners and I think it'd be kind of cramped in a dog crate overnight. Hmm...maybe my husband could use that green plastic garden netting/fencing to make a separate space in the hoop coop for the little ducklings. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this successfully? I'd love the two flocks to become one flock soon, instead of having two separate flocks that don't like each other, so I want to do whatever it takes to help them get used to each other.
Any advice would be much appreciated!
I'm attaching a photo of my 5-week old blue bibbed (?) runner ducklings, which I received from a nice family down in South Florida who hatched eggs from their own happy backyard ducks. Their big feathers are coming in WAY faster than my first batch of (Metzer) ducklings, who weren't fully feathered til around 10 weeks!! The runners go outside with my four fully feathered 12-week old ducks during most days now. The two groups remain in separate flocks throughout the day in their 1000-sq ft duck pen that surrounds the coop, and the older girls are still chasing the babies around with their heads down low to the ground and their beaks wide open lol. I am still taking the runner ducklings inside to sleep at night, and they've only been in the coop (inside a circular puppy playpen) with the big ducks once, last week, and seemed really scared so we haven't yet tried it again.
Anyway, I'm so over brooding in the house--I'm buying two of those big bags of the horse bedding pine pellets from TSC every 2-3 days. My house stinks like a barn. I've already decided that future ducklings will be hatched and brooded by Muscovy mamas because brooding ducklings in the house is just too much work + stinky.
I'm in Northeast Florida, with lows in the mid-40s/50s and highs in the 60s/70s this upcoming week. Do my runners look fully feathered enough to sleep outside in the hoop coop (photos attached)? They still have some down fluff, but most of their big feathers are in, and when they swim in the pool, the water just beads right off their feathers.
When they ARE ready to sleep outside, I'd love some advice on how best to get the two flocks acclimated to each other. I have a dog crate that they could sleep in, inside the hoop coop...I could put another tarp over the top of the coop to protect more floor space from rain. But there are five runners and I think it'd be kind of cramped in a dog crate overnight. Hmm...maybe my husband could use that green plastic garden netting/fencing to make a separate space in the hoop coop for the little ducklings. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this successfully? I'd love the two flocks to become one flock soon, instead of having two separate flocks that don't like each other, so I want to do whatever it takes to help them get used to each other.
Any advice would be much appreciated!
