Eggs in Lockdown! Hatching Blog

[Canadian Wind]

I have the Spice Girls all set up in their brooder now, and the chicken that was occupying it is back outside. One good thing is she now realizes I'm not an ogre and that it helped her feet feel better.

 

[Canadian Wind]

Just make sure they can get away from the heat as well
I have the heat plate but when the school was using my set up and I hatched a group same time I had to use my heat lamp
I found very quickly they don’t like it as hot as recommended
After a few days my babies moved to the outside so I moved it up a few inches and they went back to the centre
This happened every few days
By 2-3 weeks they hardly used it and by 3 weeks they didn’t use it at all
I also start bathing mind by day 3 as long as the belly button looks good
I use warm water and only a few inches. They can swim but also stand up in it. 5-10 mins then I use a paper towel ti dry them then put them by the heater and they start to preen and use the oil gland
I have never had a duckling have issues with no oil
Many say wait till 5 weeks but that’s crazy
Moms take their babies at 48 hours old to swim
Mine dive underwater at day 3-5 and absolutely love to swim
A few more things that help with babies is using nutritional yeast 1 tbsp to 1 cup feed till 10-12 weeks then a few times a week sprinkle on top to help then with niacin
Second is chick grit
Being in Canada I struggled to find this and the cost on Amazon or shipping from USA was crazy but if you wait till they are 2-3 weeks old before giving any treats you can skip the chick grit and go yo the next step silica grit I get at UFA
It’s not much bigger then the small chick grit and by age 2 weeks they can handle it
Very important to give when yuh aren’t feeding regular feed
I just leave a bowl out at all times for mine. They will use it as they need. It helps them to digest feed other then duck or chicken feed

I was just going to ask when I should give them their first bath, lol!
I do have the heat lamp on the one side, to give them the choice. Ducks are hardier than chickens when it comes to this, so I heard.
I'm not intending on giving any treats right away, but good plan, I just need to find tiny grit when I do.
Do they still need the niacin boost if they're on the duckling starter? All my other ducklings did fine on just this. I only added the extra when the feed shop was out of Starter.

 

[Plague]

I have the Spice Girls all set up in their brooder now, and the chicken that was occupying it is back outside. One good thing is she now realizes I'm not an ogre and that it helped her feet feel better.

View attachment 3270405

Awe, those little ones are so cute!

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I was just going to ask when I should give them their first bath, lol!
I do have the heat lamp on the one side, to give them the choice. Ducks are hardier than chickens when it comes to this, so I heard.
I'm not intending on giving any treats right away, but good plan, I just need to find tiny grit when I do.
Do they still need the niacin boost if they're on the duckling starter? All my other ducklings did fine on just this. I only added the extra when the feed shop was out of Starter.

I use chicken starter till 2 weeks then to grower but I have heard others still have niacin issues even on the duck feed
Better to just add it then chance a niacin issue down the road
Some ducks do great abd never need it
Sometimes one out of 6 you have gets the issue
I didn’t use it with my first 3 ducks I had no idea but I do notice my pekin has a slight turn in her one foot that probably was from that I just got lucky that’s all it was
Now I do it all the time and Aldo advice my buyers of both ducklings or eggs they hatch to do so and over 60 babies now not one with leg issues and they are pekin x khaki Campbell and I also have Swedish ducks that tend to be my biggest ducks I have
UFA or peavy mart both sell the silican grit
It’s a big bag and last a long time
It can get wet and be fine

 

[Canadian Wind]

Okay, I'll ask my daughter where she put it. She has it in pill form (the nutritional yeast is stupidly expensive around here).

Closest Peaveys is an hour away, but I have been meaning to check it out. My own feed store just carries the basics. Then again, they are 45 minutes away. That's the problem when you're in the middle of nowhere!

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Okay, I'll ask my daughter where she put it. She has it in pill form (the nutritional yeast is stupidly expensive around here).

Closest Peaveys is an hour away, but I have been meaning to check it out. My own feed store just carries the basics. Then again, they are 45 minutes away. That's the problem when you're in the middle of nowhere!

Yes the yeast is very expensive I pay 20.00 at a time
The grit will last you a year so if you do get a chance maybe your feed store would carry it or order one in
I have 16 ducks and in a year only used one bag

 

[Plague]

Okay, I'll ask my daughter where she put it. She has it in pill form (the nutritional yeast is stupidly expensive around here).

Closest Peaveys is an hour away, but I have been meaning to check it out. My own feed store just carries the basics. Then again, they are 45 minutes away. That's the problem when you're in the middle of nowhere!

I too am kinda in no where. I have to go like 30 min to get to closest tsc, we have a co-op about 20min away, but the co-op doesn’t carry anything for ducks, seems everything but for ducks actually. Other than the obvious things that can be used for chickens with ducks, like they have some electrolytes/probiotics powder, grit, and calcium supplement like crushed oyster shells. They have the chick starters and food, but you really need the niacin, which they do not other than the electrolytes carry anything to add it. TSC does carry more duck specific stuff, at a higher cost than the co-op as far as feed, but neither has ever had any yeast in store. We just ended up biting the bullet and ordering some online. And it was actually pretty cheap. Only place we was able to find was at a walmart and they wanted same price or more for considerably less than we ended up finding online, plus when you add gas cost for us to get around, shipping was a great deal! So you might consider looking online for places that might be able to get it delivered to your door for a reasonable price. I really prefer to deal with local brick and mortar, and normally don’t mind a bit more cost to do so. But sometimes it just ends up not realistic when the cost is just way too much.

 

[Canadian Wind]

Alright, time for an update... It is with great sadness that Mace passed away a few days after she hatched. And then Nutmeg started developing 'stargazing' tendencies and having balance issues.

@Miss Lydia has been an invaluable help through PMs.

Yesterday, I found some other idiot who, like me, went and hatched out some eggs at this time of the year, lol. So I got two little Khaki Campbells to keep Nutmeg company. I had put her on Niacin supplement, and she seemed to be doing better, but then started having the issues again. She's now on a vitamin B complex, caplet that I'm crushing and adding to the food.

I'm completely paranoid right now. I check on them constantly.

Here's a pic of Pecan and Walnut, to brighten up the topic a bit: