Are we ready to brood our first ducks?!

[3bird]

Yep, many people use brewers yeast . It works good too. But if you can find nutritional it does have quite a bit more niacin.
Most ducklings always manage to be a little bit wet. As long as they arent shivering and cold tho its okay. Sounds like yours are doing good!

Thank so much. The transition to the new BYC could not have happened at a worse time for us, but I'm happy to report that our ducklings are two weeks post hatch today, and they are doing great! They had their first outing and first swim (in a shallow pan) two days ago. We upgraded the brooder from a 50 gallon Rubbermaid to a kiddie pool a few days ago, and that seems to be working well. They are HUGE!

Pictured here is what we have been using for Brewer's Yeast. Okay? We've simply been sprinkling it on top of their food, to which they have had unrestricted access. Today (day 14), we plan to swap over to feeding as much as they will eat in 15 minutes/3x per day. We will also continue to offer them greens. We'll be mixing in and then switching to a 16% grower feed today as well. Do we continue to add niacin? Also, we've seen recommendations to add 20% oats to the grower pellets. Thoughts?

Thanks for your assistance!

 

[3bird]

So we are continuing to add niacin and grit, and now we're adding oats as well. They are getting as much as they can eat in 15 3x per day, and they spend most of the rest of the day starving. We've been offering mid-meal greens, which they devour in short order.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

You will want to make sure you get some nutritional yeast started asap as well. They really NEED added niacin when your feeding chick feed. Some use niacin capsules( harder to find) but 150 mg per gallon of water. Must be plain niacin- not flush free- or time released. I and many others use nutritional yeast- has alot more niacin than brewers yeast. For this you add 1 tablespoon per cup of feed. Without it leg and wing problems are very common. Looking forward to a picture of them

I am getting duckling soon as well. I currently feed 20% flock raiser from Purina. Should I be adding the niacin as well? And if I feed all my birds together will the added niacin hurt my hens/chicks/roosters? And once they hit laying age is the 20% protein going to be too much since that's what I feed full time?

 

[3bird]

I am getting duckling soon as well. I currently feed 20% flock raiser from Purina. Should I be adding the niacin as well? And if I feed all my birds together will the added niacin hurt my hens/chicks/roosters? And once they hit laying age is the 20% protein going to be too much since that's what I feed full time?

We are new to this as well, and we only have ducks. For the first two weeks, we used a 20% starter poultry crumble and added niacin and grit (because we started feeding greens very early on as well). They had 24/7 access to food for those first two weeks. Now that we are into week 3, we've dialed back to a 16% grower feed fed 3x per day (as much as they'll eat in 15 minutes). We're still adding niacin and grit, but now we're also adding oats. We're also feeding greens several times a day.

Our feeding regime is mostly based on Dave Holderread's advice in "Raising Ducks". We are not focused on stimulating fastest growth, hence are change in feeding at week 3. At 7 weeks, we plan to switch to a 15% developer feed.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

We are new to this as well, and we only have ducks. For the first two weeks, we used a 20% starter poultry crumble and added niacin and grit (because we started feeding greens very early on as well). They had 24/7 access to food for those first two weeks. Now that we are into week 3, we've dialed back to a 16% grower feed fed 3x per day (as much as they'll eat in 15 minutes). We're still adding niacin and grit, but now we're also adding oats. We're also feeding greens several times a day.

Our feeding regime is mostly based on Dave Holderread's advice in "Raising Ducks". We are not focused on stimulating fastest growth, hence are change in feeding at week 3. At 7 weeks, we plan to switch to a 15% developer feed.

Hi, welcome to BYC!
Interesting... I'm not trying to stimulate fastest growth either. And Metzer Farms where my duckling will be coming from says to feed 22% for the first couple weeks but says if you only feed 20% to keep them at that rate for 4 weeks. They also make it clear that ducks NEED to maintain a slightly lighter body weight to keep fertility high (guessing that might be part of the reason for how your feeding schedule is). Here is a link to their nutrition page...
http://www.metzerfarms.com/NutritionalRequirements.cfm?affiliate=undef&CustID=15789834

I will probably try to go by their model. But I will check out the resource you are using.

I would think your oats and greens would be lowering you protein content depending on quantities of course.

No such thing as 24 hour feed here because I don't use a light, so they sleep at night.

Thank you for sharing your practices!

 

[3bird]

Hi, welcome to BYC!
Interesting... I'm not trying to stimulate fastest growth either. And Metzer Farms where my duckling will be coming from says to feed 22% for the first couple weeks but says if you only feed 20% to keep them at that rate for 4 weeks. They also make it clear that ducks NEED to maintain a slightly lighter body weight to keep fertility high (guessing that might be part of the reason for how your feeding schedule is). Here is a link to their nutrition page...
http://www.metzerfarms.com/NutritionalRequirements.cfm?affiliate=undef&CustID=15789834

I will probably try to go by their model. But I will check out the resource you are using.

I would think your oats and greens would be lowering you protein content depending on quantities of course.

No such thing as 24 hour feed here because I don't use a light, so they sleep at night.

Thank you for sharing your practices!

Just an update. We're still on a three times a day feeding schedule with intermediate green snacks. It's been a cold and wet spring, so they have not been out as much as we would have liked, but when they are out, they are foraging in the garden (and loving it!). We're still adding oats and brewer's yeast to their feed. They are growing SO fast.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Glad they are doing well!

My ducklings should be here in 20 days or less.

 

[3bird]

Glad they are doing well!

My ducklings should be here in 20 days or less.

Awesome! Here's a funny video of our guys' first trip to the garden:

https://threebirdfarmmaine.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/ducklings-in-the-garden/

They sure like the strawberries!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

So cute!