Ducks afraid of the dark?

[Craigory]

Hi all,
I'm Craig. I been stalking the forum for wisdom for awhile but this is my first posting. This year my fiance and I have started up a small duck farm outside of Sebastopol, California. After culling out males, we've got 47 appleyards. We've had a few bumps in the road- normal learning curve sort of problems- but this one really takes the cake.
Without a light on in the coop all night, my ducks simply do not give me any peace. They are a panicking mess from sundown to sunup. My bedroom is uninsulated and very close to theirs.With the light on they're quiet. I've read here about others having this issue and keeping a light on, but I'm not satisfied with that solution. First off I hate running an extension cord out to the coop on a longterm basis. Second I've read in Holderread's book that a 24 hour light cycle can wreak havoc on a growing duck- activating hormones at an improper time and causing the bird to lay eggs too soon at the expense of the bird's ovaries and overall longevity. Third it's just ridiculous that my waterfowl need a night light.
I'm sure that I've caused this issue. These birds are my whole future livelihood so I kept a red heat lamp on them at night longer than necessary. When I tried turning it off they panicked all night- so I went out and bought a low wattage light bulb to placate them. Figured it was better than wasting 50 watts on a heat lamp every night. I've tried several times to turn the light off but every time eventually gave in and turned it on so i could get some sleep.
A couple days ago I decided to dig my heels in and stow the extension cord. As expected, I slept very little last night. This is now night two. About a quarter after midnight. And I'm ready to pull my hair out. About every two minutes my charming flock erupts into a cacophony of panicked quacking. And I know what's going on in there. Mad rushing from wall to wall. Piles of thrashing birds. No good.
Has anybody had and then solved this problem? Is it a patience thing? A few nights from now will we all be peacefully sleeping? Or is there something I can do? I've considered maybe making some small, low shelters in there that they can tuck themselves into. Or, if I can't outright fix the problem, compromising and using a low wattage red bulb in the corner of the duckhouse. Perhaps a red bulb won't mess with their perceived daylight cycle and won't result in premature laying and prolapsed ovaries.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Mum]

Welcome to BYC, Craig

Patience is going to be the biggest thing here!

My suggestion would be to reduce the light in one hour increments until you have built up to no light at all. So, delay turning it on by an hour after dusk the first night (or, turn it off one hour before dawn?) If you have a timer plug you could use, that would be perfect; if not, you may have to sleep in shifts until they learn.

That is the advice I took when adjusting ducklings from a full 24hr light cycle in the brooder to acclimatising them to natural day/night cycles.

Hope that helps.

Good luck with your duck farm!

 

[Amiga]

My runners need a night light, but they don't need much at all.

For their outdoor housing, I found a solar rope light. It casts very little light, and fades very slowly overnight so that in the wee hours of morning before the sun comes up, it is dark outside, and they seem fine with that.

Indoors, there is a way for me to turn on a low wattage fluorescent light down the hall from them. I can barely see to get around, but it seems sufficient for them.

There are also ways for a few of them to get into shadows, as not all of them panic without lights.

Two and a half years old, now, everyone seems fine so far.

 

[ChicagoDucks]

I wonder if a flock need some adult drakes to keep calm and quiet. I recently culled my adult drakes (because they weren't doing well with our ducklings) and I noticed that my ducks suddenly became a lot noisier and more skittish. It seems like the alpha females have taken up the role of chasing away "danger" (mainly our harmless dog), and the other females get all worked up in the commotion. It almost makes me miss getting nipped in the calf!