Duckings and Chicks - best practices so that they love each over

[Katy]

I'm gonna have to contradict MissPrissy about the medicated food.

That's all I've ever fed my ducklings and I've raised a lot of duckings. Medicated is ok as long as the only medication in it is Amprolium which is a preventative against coccidIosis.

 

[MissPrissy]

The thing is unless you know what is in the medicated food it is not safe. Not all medicated feed is created equal. Better for a new chick and duck owner to be safe than sorry.

BlueMoon - I was wondering if your chicks had died of unknown causes from illness. Since you didn't say I advised cleaning the brooder just in case it was an illness related death.

Sorry about the mean old broody.

 

[BlueMoon]

She pecked at them until there was no skin on the heads of five them. I now know just how big an chicks eye really is. I did think maybe those six were diseased, but it seems more like she went by breeds. She's a black sex link. She decimated the California whites and the one in the best shape, so presumably the last one, was a Silver Laced Wyandotte. She left the Amerucanas alone - one of the chicks she hatched was an amerucana.
I had a similar problem in the winter with a hen (Java I think), really going after one of the white/yellow chicks, the only one of the group, until she killed it.

But this Java is amazing. I just moved the brooder outside (yes, knee surgery was last Tuesday). She could hear the chicks on the other side of the wall. I had opened the doors and she hopped in - the chicks were terrified and she started to show them how to scratch. I took out the partition and all chicks are getting on well, with the three day olds learning from the 18 day olds. And yes, I am monitoring!

Oh - I moved the ducklings to a plastic cage outside. They have low water dishes, with lettuce and spinach in teeny bits, and are just having a fabulous time.


Considering the hen, I'll leave them in their own box tonight.

 

[DuckLady]

The thing with medicated chick starter is that it is a thiamine supressant and is lower in the niacin which waterfowl need. If they are getting these things in their environment by foraging, medicated feed shoulen't do any harm. However, whenever I have had ducklings inside in a brooder, I ave always had trouble (accidentally) feeding medicated chick starter....weak legs and shakiness, which was always corrected by changing to non medicated gamebird starter. You can up the niacin by sprinkling brewer's yeast on the feed and finding another source for the thiamine.

I would keep them separate. The hen knows they are not hers and may kill them.

Katy, I hardly recognized you without your call duck avatar!

 

[Katy]

I decided to change for awhile....I may have to bring my little duckie back tho

 

[snewman]

Here's my two cents' worth on keeping ducklings and chicks together. This is my first year for either, and I ordered some of each. I kept them together, moving them from my initial brooder into a bigger one at about 2 weeks of age. I moved them right before I was going to be gone for Memorial weekend and a friend was going to be taking care of them. I left extra bedding to add in case it got wet, and got a bigger waterer to make sure they wouldn't run out between my friend's visits. When I got home at the end of the weekend, I was astonished and dismayed at what I found. The bedding was deep and sopping wet. All of the little chicks had their feathers coated in wetness and poop to the point that you could barely tell they even had feathers. They looked absolutely miserable and I feared I would lose some. The ducks were totally cheerful and happy. I thought I might have to take out each chick and wash it somehow to get all the crap off the feathers. I separated them, cleaned up the mess, and hurried to finish the coop in the next few days. When I moved them to the big coop, I figured out a better water setup and put the ducks and chicks back together. Then the chicks turned the table on the ducks and started picking at the ducks' bloodfeathers that were coming in, making a big bloody mess of the poor ducks. Now ducks and chickens each have half of the coop (except two fat cornish X's that were also having their feathers plucked so are in with the ducks). I'm getting ready to finish the outside pen and am trying to figure out how that's going to work.

 

[BlueMoon]

Thanks - I've had them separated for a few days and put them back in together tonight. There's a heat lamp on and they're getting on perfectly. Tomorrow, I'll put the ducks outside with their big water dish and they'll splash around madly, as we've done since Monday.

I really want the ducks to be comfortable with the chickens as they may have to occasionally share space.

And I'm thinking about bringing in a few more - someone has freshly hatched ducklings and s!omeone else has three week olds. Should I be concerned about mixing ages and breeds with ducks? Thanks