Dull feathers and new ducklings

[Patty43]

My ducks feathers seem to have gotten dull looking. They almost look faded or washed out. Is this normal?They are approx. 1 year old. On another note I have 16 eggs due to hatch this weekend. Have candled and everything looks on schedule. The pen has been divided so momma and the ducklings will be left alone. The incubator and brooder are set to go in the event something goes wrong. Questions is: I always lock my ducks up at night to avoid problems with predators. I have a separate house for the momma and babies. If I lock them up at night will I have to put food and water in the house overnight or will the babies be good till morning. They are usually locked up from about 10pm to 6 am. Last year when I got my ducks they were in a brooder in the house and I left the food and water in 24/7. These ducklings will be outside with the momma, and I cant even imagine how messy it will be if I put the food and water inside the house.It is an old dog house and access to the inside is difficult. Also does it matter at what age I let the ducklings go to a new home. I got mine at 2 days old but they were incubated. Just wondering how long I should leave them with the mother duck

 

[Miss Lydia]

My ducks feathers seem to have gotten dull looking. They almost look faded or washed out. Is this normal?They are approx. 1 year old. On another note I have 16 eggs due to hatch this weekend. Have candled and everything looks on schedule. The pen has been divided so momma and the ducklings will be left alone. The incubator and brooder are set to go in the event something goes wrong. Questions is: I always lock my ducks up at night to avoid problems with predators. I have a separate house for the momma and babies. If I lock them up at night will I have to put food and water in the house overnight or will the babies be good till morning. They are usually locked up from about 10pm to 6 am. Last year when I got my ducks they were in a brooder in the house and I left the food and water in 24/7. These ducklings will be outside with the momma, and I cant even imagine how messy it will be if I put the food and water inside the house.It is an old dog house and access to the inside is difficult. Also does it matter at what age I let the ducklings go to a new home. I got mine at 2 days old but they were incubated. Just wondering how long I should leave them with the mother duck

Are you keeping any of them? if not I'd leave them with her for at least 3 weeks. and I have 4- 1 week old ducklings with a mama duck and I keep food and water inside 24/7 and will till they are 3 weeks old then i'll take it out at night, I was using a 1 gallon chicken waterer and oh my goodness mom was making such a mess so I went and made 2 waterers and it's much drier in there now. I'll get pics for you. for babies for mama, I put those cut glass looking things people put into aquariums they are round and flat, bought them at walmart to keep the bottom heavy so they wouldn't turn it over and if one of the ducklings was to fall into it wouldn't be deep enough to drown in. They have done great with both.

 

[Amiga]

I hope some duckling raisers will answer you, but I think the ducklings will need food 24/7 with water. Yes, it can be messy.

It will be up to the mother duck how she handles babies. I don't think there's an age limit high or low for rehoming the ducklings.

If your ducks have not molted for almost a year (I reckon they had their two-month-old molt), then their feathers will be a bit bleached out. That should change once they molt again. Mine don't do it all at the same time. They molt when they molt.

 

[jdywntr]

My ducks feathers seem to have gotten dull looking. They almost look faded or washed out. Is this normal?They are approx. 1 year old. On another note I have 16 eggs due to hatch this weekend. Have candled and everything looks on schedule. The pen has been divided so momma and the ducklings will be left alone. The incubator and brooder are set to go in the event something goes wrong. Questions is: I always lock my ducks up at night to avoid problems with predators. I have a separate house for the momma and babies. If I lock them up at night will I have to put food and water in the house overnight or will the babies be good till morning. They are usually locked up from about 10pm to 6 am. Last year when I got my ducks they were in a brooder in the house and I left the food and water in 24/7. These ducklings will be outside with the momma, and I cant even imagine how messy it will be if I put the food and water inside the house.It is an old dog house and access to the inside is difficult. Also does it matter at what age I let the ducklings go to a new home. I got mine at 2 days old but they were incubated. Just wondering how long I should leave them with the mother duck

Okay, I'm going to try to get all of this

Ducks will look dull after setting as they aren't preening/bathing as often. Normal. If other ducks are looking dull, they may be molting or close to molt, again, normal.

I also lock my birds up at night (VERY important). I only leave food and water overnight with my mother raised ducklings for maybe the first week. The way I look at it is if they were being raised in the wild, they wouldn't eat 24/7. BUT, this all changes if they are taken from mom and raised inside or away from her. Without mom, they aren't taught when and what to eat, which is why I think we need to give feed 24/7 on hand raised ducklings.

I had been blocking my broody ducks off from everyone but the last hatch, 15 muscovy ducklings, I left be and let mom decide. (My drake has been great in previous hatches so I didn't need to worry about that). I provided food and water in the coop (filled in the morning) and let her decide when to bring them out. She brought them out at 3-4 days. I think you could still leave feed/water out of the coop but you could suffer some losses as little ones need feed/water more often and may not get taken out to it soon enough or as often as needed with a determined setter who has some late hatches.

Now, to provide starter to little bitties (chicks and ducklings) I have bowls of feed under milk crates. Determined chickens will get their heads in the hand holes and eat some but most don't bother. The little bitties can get in there at first and even after a few weeks can eat comfortably through the hand holes in the crates. I also put waterers under them for the littles.

I hope I got everything. Good luck. I'd only suggest trying to leave them be (as hard as it can be) and let the mom handle it. Keep an eye out to make sure that she is being a good mom but otherwise, let her be.

Ok, I missed how long to leave them with her. If your keeping them, leave them with her. If you want to sell them as well socialized babies, take them. It really depends on your plans.

 

[Patty43]

Thanks for the quick replies. I will supply food and water 24/7 if that is best. Thanks for the pics of the waterers. Went outside to check on eggs and they may be a day or two earlier than I thought. At least two have externally pipped. Heres hoping everything goes well . Will keep a close eye on them.