does anyone have Aylesbury ducks? Newbie to duck keeping !!

[liz allen]

Hi just got 2 Aylesbury ducklings from an auction ,

think they are between 2 and 4 weeks old both female.
At this age do they need a heat lamp or will they be ok without? I'm in the U.K so it's our summer so not extremely hot but not cold either.
At the moment in a crate in the house planning on keeping them inside until fully feathered.
Any advice on this breed or duck care in general, feed, care, does and don'ts etc, would be appreciated as although i keep chickens i am new to ducks and want to get it right.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

How are they doing? Is that one in your avatar?


I know nothing about Aylesbury ducks - not even what they look like or if large or bantam

I would offer the babies a heat lamp/light and be sure they can also get away from it. Many of my baby ducklings seem to need a "mothers" heat less than chicks do, at an earlier age.


Make sure that their water is shallow so they can easily get out but deep enough for their nostrils to go under water when they dip their bills in. Make sure to feed a feed that is for ducks - they need more niacin than chickens - too little can hurt the ducks, but a chicken will not get hurt eating food for a duck. I feed a multi flock feed (geese, ducks, chickens)

Peas, ducks love peas - frozen work great.


I am so excited for you

 

[AdamD77]

Lucky you! The Aylesbury have been cross bred so much with Pekins to produce an excellent meat bird that it is hard to find a pure-bred Aylesbury these days. They should have yellow fluff as babies and white feathers as adults and if pure bred they should have pink legs/feet and beak! Exhibition quality birds are huge, with a similar shape to an exhibiton huge Rouen - very fat and low to the ground. Good luck with them!

 

[duckyfromoz]

We have just one Aylesbury - a VERY large male who is more like a dog than a duck. He was hand raised on his own- and is such a character. At three years old he still wants to come in the house for a visit, but we also bring him inside for a swim. He is too large to climb into the kiddie pools I have for our ducks- so we either have put him in and stand around while he cleans himself up - or bring him inside to the bath tub.

 

[liz allen]

Thanks everyone , they do have pink beaks and legs at the moment so maybe they might be pure Aylesbury and they eat like pigs. They don't any proper feathers yet so was thinking they may be younger? or do ducks start getting their feathers late? I'm used to chickens who have some feather by week 2/3. They are different sizes too so maybe differ in age or maybe one is a boy!
One likes the heat lamp the other doesn't but make a proper racket if they can't see each other so they go under the lamp to sleep and when they wake up which is usually to eat they go in messy quarters, an old inflatable paddling pool so they can throw food and water around until their hearts content Then they have a swim in the bath tub, will look forward to carrying them up the stairs when their huge , not.
One question though the smaller one intermittently makes a snoring/rasping sound when breathing, should i be concerned, or is this a duck thing?
P.S Avatar is a day old pekin, hatched 3 weeks ago.

 

[Oregon Blues]

You have to watch them to judge whether they need heat or not.

Right now I have 3 week old ducklings and they will pant if the temperature is over 80 degrees Fahrenheit (I'd have to use an on-line conversion table to turn that into Celsius, sorry), But if it goes below 70 F, they huddle.

Large ducklings produce a lot of body heat. Mine are still with a lamp at night and have been without during the day for at least a week. I check in on them frequently and use their behavior to know when to turn the light off and on. Also, about midnight, I put a hood over the light to hold more heat, and that comes off somewhere around 10 AM. Another hour and then the light goes off until about 10 PM.