You are off to a great start! Hooray that you are thinking ahead.
My eleven runners are nearing five weeks old (gasp!) and here are a few things they have taught me:
-things work out better if I am not in a rush when I need to do something for them
-when I think of providing water, I must think of providing a way to minimize the splash wetting the bedding - this happened so much the first couple of days that I could not keep the brooder anywhere near dry, and the evaporation cooled the brooder by 10 degrees so I could not keep it at 90 F, the desired temperature for day old ducklings (I have written here on the duck forum about the ways I have reduced the splash greatly)
-surfaces that are easier to wipe down make cleanup easier
-my ducklings ate shavings, so they stayed on towels for four weeks
-I am allergic to pine shavings (learned that by direct experience)
-proper nutrition, constant supply of fresh water, clean warm brooder, regular bathtime (warm - 90 F - shallow and supervised closely) and a way to dip their heads seem to help them avoid eye and other health troubles (so far, anyway)
-duckling quality time is better than any therapy I know for boosting the optimism
-greens are the best thing ever
-the first two weeks new things seem much less scary than when they are three weeks old or older (may just be the runners)
-lullabies are calming, even when sung off key
-eyebrows look like food
Now, for what I figured out from multiple sources, and it works for me, and there is no one right way:
-ceramic heat bulbs are costly but work well and at night I can lower the lights and still keep them warm enough - they need ceramic fixtures - actually, I think any heat light might be safer in a ceramic fixture (it is what the seed and feed store carries as well)
-I used first one, then soon two quart sized waterers the first two weeks (at first I had four of my friend's birds also), then a gallon waterer the next two, and I just switched to a three gallon, because with eleven runners the water lasted three to four hours, and my sleep became important to me!
-I used two six inch diameter chick feeders for almost three weeks, then their bills were too large to get enough food so I switched to a ten inch diameter stainless steel salad bowl. They rarely knock it over, though sometimes someone will stand in it. YRMV
-when they were two weeks old, I started using a two foot, four inch wide galvanized feeder for salad, now have switched to a twelve inch by eighteen inch stainless steel cooking pan to serve salad (with a half inch of water - that seems to be like adding gravy to mashed potates)
-their first few swims were in that stainless steel cooking pan
-at about three weeks they started swimming in a 90 F tub, deep enough to come up just to the tops of their legs
-before they arrived, I set up the heaters and moved the thermometer around every few hours to get a feel for it
-Holderread in Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks writes that he sprinkles just a little chick sized grit on their food at first (no teeth - they need to chew with their crops)
-I suspend the light fixtures on half inch hardware cloth (if you are unfamiliar, it is like a large very heavy metal screen) FIRMLY attached at the top of the brooder. This allows me to move the lamps in any direction to adjust the heat
How many birds are you expecting? Do you know what kind of feed you will be offering them? Have you considered having gro-gel for the first week (it is a supplement) and vitamin electrolyte mix? What kind of bedding do you plan to use?
(I love seeing the terrific variety of ways people care for their ducks. It is inspiring.)
