don't think I will ever brood ducks again! please help!

[Alas]

I brood mine in a rabbit hutch. The mess (mostly) falls out and I can use the hose to wash out the rest. The hardware cloth helps them keep a good grip with their feet so their legs stay sturdy too, it seems. I used a chick feeder and waterer and got the kind that I could hang from the roof of the hutch so that their little ducks butts could not get any nastiness into the containers. You can thread the rope for hanging through a piece of pvc cut to fit so that it doesnt swing too much. Otherwise, just make sure in cold weather to cover the sides to block out the wind, provide shelter (I use a 5 gal bucket so it can be washed out easy), and put in a heat lamp. All of my birds brood in rabbit hutches. The next one I build will have wheels so I can put it in a sunny place in winter and a shady place in summer.

 

[mandelyn]

Yeah, like a rabbit hutch. I'm going to build one this weekend since I have ducklings coming in the mail, 10 of them! I'm brooding all then splitting the order up with someone when they don't need heat anymore. I can brood 5 easy enough on a solid floor with towels as bedding. But 10? No way. Wire! Folded up towel by the heat is all they're going to get.

But later in life in a proper duck house for adults, the rabbit wire (hardware cloth... how ever you want to call it) incorporating a watering station is a good idea.

 

[sunket77]

thanks for all the ideas! I actually have a hutch type cage I built for a transitional cage for show chickens. It has a hardware cloth bottom so the feather footed breeds keep clean before show. But I end up just putting chickens in it and they end up staying in there until I figure out what to do with them, like quarantine. I think I am going to convert that and make an inset tub for swimming after I add some supports for it. How soon can they live with just the adult ducks? The adults can stay with the chickens until the ducklings are old enough. My concern is now that I have a large breed duck it may be to big to stay with the calls in that cage.

 

[Caprice_Acres]

The only sanity I can manage with brooding ducklings is when I do it on an 'open bottom' brooder, which is a cage on legs, with hardware mesh flooring. The mess falls through and the ducklings are left high and dry - of course, the mess is still present underneath the brooder and still as smelly and yucky as before - but at leastthe ducklings are cleaner.

Honestly, brooding ducklings is NOT one of my favorite things to do. I would NOT even attempt to do so unless I can keep them in an open bottom cage. Rabbit cages work well too, in a pinch.