- Feb 6, 2013
- 44
- 6
- 24
Hi,
I'm new to the world of chickens and ducks. I purchased a chicken coop from ebay and then two chickens and a duckling last week, so they are 6 days old today. The duckling is a pekin and the chickens are isa brown. We live in Brisbane, Australia (inner city).
I read quite a bit of information before making the purchase and it was only after I brought them home that I realised there's so much more to learn.
First couple of days were great, the weather was super warm and the temperature was constantly above 30, so I didn't even need a brooder. The "children" were eating and drinking water. I bought them primarily because I wanted to have real free range eggs... but then the inevitable happened - I fell in love with the duckling!!! The little yellow fluff ball is so darn cute I spent every minute of the day with her, feeding her out of my hand, talking to her etc. I housed her with the chicks as that's what the lady I bought them from told me to do - so the duck would think it's a chicken.
She was bigger than the chicks when I got her and then every day, she was getting bigger and bigger and is now 3x the size of the chicks. All was going well initially. The weather got colder overnight and the temperature dropped to about 26 degrees (celsius... I know, this is cold for Australia haha). The chicks were pecking at the ducky's head so I kept her with me most of the time during the day. I put the duckling into a separate box overnight because she plays with the water and she made a big wet mess which I thought was no good for the chicks. The chicks looked miserable in the wet pine shavings and the whole area was wet in no time, even if I changed the shavings 2x a day. I put a little table lamp in the box where I kept them to keep them warm.
Then two days ago, I checked on the chicks before going to bed and had an oh **** moment. I wasn't sure if I'm seeing right as it was 1am already... but one of the chicks had here eyes closed shut and the other one was really mean at her, pecking her all the time and running into her. So I put the poor chick with the duckling and left the bully in her own crate. I observed the situation for a while and was really angry with myself for not noticing the pecking sooner. The ducky trampled all over the chicken and decided to squat on her. So at 3am, I put the each one of them in a separate cage and none of them were happy about it. Oh, the dramas! It's day two since the eye pecking incident and I feel like on of my chickens is dying. She's pretty lethargic in her crate, I have not seen her eat or drink. I washed her eyes 3 times already and it doesn't look like she's opening them. I'm hoping that the eyes are still actually there and that she only has her lids closed over them but it's not looking good. She feels smaller and lighter compared to the bully chick.
Ducky, named Quacky for now, is my best buddy in the mean time. I put food in a double cat bowl in her crate and that seems to work better. I only pour in a little bit of water at a time and she loves to play in it with her beak, wiggling her head around. It's like a shallow pool for her, whereas she seemed to be frustrated with the water bottle for chicks where she couldn't fit her beak in and was therefore thrashing it around. I'm afraid to put her together with the bully chick so she doesn't peck her eyes out too and I can't put her with the poor chick cause she tramples her. She nibbles my fingers, crawls on my feet to warm up, calls me when she looses sight of me, follows me around the house, poops everywhere
and has tons of personality.
So that's us. As to how it's all going to work out with a posh house in inner city and chickens & a duck in the backyard... we'll see. I'll probably be known as the crazy duck lady.
I'm new to the world of chickens and ducks. I purchased a chicken coop from ebay and then two chickens and a duckling last week, so they are 6 days old today. The duckling is a pekin and the chickens are isa brown. We live in Brisbane, Australia (inner city).
I read quite a bit of information before making the purchase and it was only after I brought them home that I realised there's so much more to learn.
First couple of days were great, the weather was super warm and the temperature was constantly above 30, so I didn't even need a brooder. The "children" were eating and drinking water. I bought them primarily because I wanted to have real free range eggs... but then the inevitable happened - I fell in love with the duckling!!! The little yellow fluff ball is so darn cute I spent every minute of the day with her, feeding her out of my hand, talking to her etc. I housed her with the chicks as that's what the lady I bought them from told me to do - so the duck would think it's a chicken.
She was bigger than the chicks when I got her and then every day, she was getting bigger and bigger and is now 3x the size of the chicks. All was going well initially. The weather got colder overnight and the temperature dropped to about 26 degrees (celsius... I know, this is cold for Australia haha). The chicks were pecking at the ducky's head so I kept her with me most of the time during the day. I put the duckling into a separate box overnight because she plays with the water and she made a big wet mess which I thought was no good for the chicks. The chicks looked miserable in the wet pine shavings and the whole area was wet in no time, even if I changed the shavings 2x a day. I put a little table lamp in the box where I kept them to keep them warm.
Then two days ago, I checked on the chicks before going to bed and had an oh **** moment. I wasn't sure if I'm seeing right as it was 1am already... but one of the chicks had here eyes closed shut and the other one was really mean at her, pecking her all the time and running into her. So I put the poor chick with the duckling and left the bully in her own crate. I observed the situation for a while and was really angry with myself for not noticing the pecking sooner. The ducky trampled all over the chicken and decided to squat on her. So at 3am, I put the each one of them in a separate cage and none of them were happy about it. Oh, the dramas! It's day two since the eye pecking incident and I feel like on of my chickens is dying. She's pretty lethargic in her crate, I have not seen her eat or drink. I washed her eyes 3 times already and it doesn't look like she's opening them. I'm hoping that the eyes are still actually there and that she only has her lids closed over them but it's not looking good. She feels smaller and lighter compared to the bully chick.
Ducky, named Quacky for now, is my best buddy in the mean time. I put food in a double cat bowl in her crate and that seems to work better. I only pour in a little bit of water at a time and she loves to play in it with her beak, wiggling her head around. It's like a shallow pool for her, whereas she seemed to be frustrated with the water bottle for chicks where she couldn't fit her beak in and was therefore thrashing it around. I'm afraid to put her together with the bully chick so she doesn't peck her eyes out too and I can't put her with the poor chick cause she tramples her. She nibbles my fingers, crawls on my feet to warm up, calls me when she looses sight of me, follows me around the house, poops everywhere

So that's us. As to how it's all going to work out with a posh house in inner city and chickens & a duck in the backyard... we'll see. I'll probably be known as the crazy duck lady.