Ducks and heat, mine don't need it, why do yours?

[secuono]

Ok, so I have 3 Khaki and 3 Pekin ducklings, they are now 5 and 6 weeks old. When they were 3 & 4 weeks, I moved them into the cold garage on the concrete floor. I have kept a fresh towel on their floor daily, 30g bin for pond and no heat what so ever day or night. They are growing bigger and messier every week.

Why is everyone saying that ducks need heat like chicks do, this has proven totally false in my experience?

 

[julie75]

Because if they get too cold, they will die. Like chicks, ducklings are unable to regulate their body temperature until they get feathers. How much heat and how long really depends on your climate. They do not necessarily sleep under the heat lamp, but it does keep the temperature warmer in their surroundings. Most information tells you for new hatchlings to adjust the temperature around 90 degrees and decrease 5 degrees every week after. My new ducklings are about 2 wks old now and they have a heat lamp in one area of their brooder. They have room to run and play but when they get too cold they will come back to area where there is heat.

 

[KansasKid]

Every ones experience is different. Most keep lamps on them because like chicks they will sometimes pile on top of each other to keep warm and end up trampling the smaller ones.

Better safe than sorry-

 

[pips&peeps]

Probably because I got snow still last week, not everyone lives in a warmer climate. We do have four seasons where I live.

 

[FenDruadin]

Whether they need heat or not depends on your climate, the time of year, and what kind of access they have to water. Wet ducklings will appreciate (and even need) a heat lamp more often than dry ducklings.

Ducklings ARE much hardier than chickens and quail in regard to temperature. In summer, mine stay in the house only a couple days to make sure they are healthy and strong, then out they go to a brooder. I leave a lamp on for a couple weeks, and then decide whether to leave it on based on whether they act cold or not, and what the weather forecasts.

Winter ducklings must stay indoors much longer and require heat much longer also.

It is possible to brood ducklings without a heat lamp at all even in cool to cold climates, if you provide them with a very snug space (i.e., their brooder is only just slightly larger than necessary to contain them), carefully dry access to water (i.e., they can't slosh all over themselves), and insulation (if it's cool outside the brooder). Give them the ability to escape the warm area, and they'll keep each other warm when they need to. Consider how well ducklings survive trips across country in early spring in tiny little cardboard boxes.

However, people with cold winters and cold-hatched ducklings who do not use a heat lamp will lose a lot more ducklings for reasons already stated.

The other thing to keep in mind is that ducklings grow much faster than chicks. In the wild, by the age of 2 weeks, they will no longer fit under their mother the way a chick still can. However, in the wild, they will be hatched in Spring and if they hit a cold snap, they may very well die. Survival rates in the wild are extraordinarily low, so you can't use that as an accurate gauge of good practice, unless your goal is to develop a strain of exceedingly hardy birds and you don't mind 90% death rates along the way. However, the fact that they *can* survive without supplemental heat, under the right conditions, does mean that many people *can* get away with not providing the supplemental heat.

For me, it's only pennies in electric cost for significant peace of mind. If they don't want the heat, they can move away. When they stop using it or behave as though they are too hot, I reduce or remove the heat. That works for me; other people prefer other methods.

 

[KansasKid]

Quote:
You mean your hen was nesting on 9 eggs? If it is your drake on the nest i need to see some pictures,

Sounds like putting the mister on helped a bunch. Lately i have been hitting the ducks and chickens with the water hose once in a while to cool them off. doesn't look like the heat is going to let up anytime soon.

 

[countrydream7]

1. have ducks and chicks a few days old garage cold live up north can I safely put out in garage with heat lamp or are they too young yet? thanks

 

[FlomatonsFlocks]

Mine are 10 days old. It's sunny and 71 out. I'm gonna try taking them outside for most of the day. Let's see how this goes.

Update: They are LOVING the weather! I wait until it's close to 70 out with warm (or little to no) wind and they stay out all day until dark when it gets cold. (Then I get scared they'll get TOO cold and bring them back in with their lamp). We just don't have money to replace them if need be so I'm being careful, plus, I have that mother hen attitude lol, They're my babies! We caught crickets and after the first one realized they were tasty, they mostly eat what they find in the yard. Lol they stay close to me and/or my children and follow us, never wandering too far!

 

[Amiga]

I find that when folks debate about heat, rarely do they include the actual temperature of the brooder or barn.

Heat matters. Ducklings are developing and need energy to build a healthy body. If they have to rob themselves of energy just to keep warm, I do not see how their health could be optimum. I know ducks can recover from alot of things, but why make them have to?

Too much heat is bad, too. I kept a waterproof thermometer in the brooder, at the level where the ducklings were, so I would know, and followed Storey’s guidelines.

 

[AnaD]

I agree! I put mine outside at two weeks in a pen with a heatlamp and they choose to not sleep near it. My 10 week old chicks go into the duck pen in the morning to use the to use the heat lamp though.