Chicken person needs help with ducklings!

[kristenm1975]

I have five beyond adorable buff/khaki ducklings that are almost 2 weeks old now. If I'm not mistaken, they still need a heat lamp, but beyond that, I need help with their living quarters. I have them in a chick brooder and they are making a huge mess.

What's a good, cheap housing situation for them that I can rig up? Pictures are very helpful!

Thank you! Here's a picture of them:

 

[Mom2Cool]

ohmyword they are adorable!

I've got a few ducklings myself that I'm a bit new to or it's been so long I don't remember this kind of mess. I guess it was my youngest son at the time taking care of them & so I helped him but he was the one watering & feeding etc. I know i had them on wood shavings & they were using a chick waterer too, but the group I have here they just like to play in that chick waterer until it is bone dry...... so then the bedding is soaking wet & they've got no drinking water. I've seen drip bottles of water on other set ups but aren't ducks suppose to be able to dip their entire beek when drinking???

 

[Cetawin]

Oh how cute...

This is what I did for my 11 ducklings at 2 weeks old...I took their large pool, used straw as bedding, a chick feeder and waterer...They had a sandwich size plastic dish for deep water to dunk their heads into which say on a cookie sheet. They were in the garage with their heat lamp...I put my hot tub frame around the pool but you could use cardboard boxes taped together as a frame around it too.

At 6 weeks old they are spending the day in one of my makeshift chicken tractors with access to a smaller pool. I cover two or three sides with old sheets to block the direct sun and avoid them overheating. I also hose them down a couple times per day, they love that.

I am working on their 6' x 8' duck house now...so they should be moved into it in a couple of weeks. They do not mind being in the garage and walk out to the tractor in the morning and walk back to the garage at night. They are very smart and learn routine easily.

Hope that helps.

 

[ChickenToes]

If you can put them outside in a coop, do it. I brood all my ducklings outside in a small, insulated 'brooder coop.' All they need is a heat lamp. They can make a huge mess and all I have to do is either scoop out the dirty shavings, or add more, just like in a regular coop.

 

[hearthnsoul]

I have 11, 6 two weeks older than the others. The oldest I beleive are around 5-6 weeks. As the coop duck pen is almost done they are still in the house. After trial and error what we ended up being happy with is a kiddie pool with a chicken wire made into a circle. The chicken wire just plops inside because every day i take the ducks out to go in there pool. Let me explain, in the morning I put the ducks in a box,..clean the dirty shavings from the pool,..put the pool in a chicken wire circle outside, fill it with water, let the ducks in there. At dusk, I dump the water from the pool, bring it back in,..put the coop wire circle in,..and then dump in shavings waterers (soda bottle with cut out on side) and feed and put the lot in for the night. The reason we put the chick wire circle into the pen was that the 5 baby mallards took to jumping out of the pen at night and wandering around.
I honestly can say this worked best for me,..totally through trial and error.

 

[PlumTuckered]

I used the bathtub in our guest bathroom...worked like a charm, cleaned up in no time and preparing swim/play time was a breeze. I believe they were my favorite guests that have ever used the room LOL

Michelle

 

[tia]

They are so adorable. I used a large plastic tub, and used old towels in the bottom of it. I changed the towels several times a day, rinsed them off and threw them in the washer. That is only a short fix though. I read that you shouldn't use straw or newspaper, but I see in the pictures below that straw seems to be working fine. I read somewhere that they would eat it. I think they need the heat lamp for a while... several weeks. I turned it down about 5 degrees each weeks until room temperature was okay. If you are putting them outside, I would think that you would need it, especially at night. I guess that would depend on where you lived. I live in Alaska, so it is too cold outside for them even during the day until they get older. Our average temp. in the summer is in the 60s.

Good Luck,

Tia

 

[kristenm1975]

Thank you very much for the tips! I like the idea of them being able to have access to a pool all day, then emptying it out at night. I have a fresh roll of chicken wire and could possibly rig up something like that, but then I would need to figure out how to hang a heat lamp.

I will likely end up using a combination of all the great ideas you all came up with.

 

[Wifezilla]

Do you want to see what this mix looks like when they grown up?

This is Uno. She had a buff mom and a khaki dad.