I'm a new member obviously but I've been reading BYC for a couple of weeks, (you folks give really good advice
) and decided it was time to join in the fun.
Here's our story from the beginning - don't worry it's short because we're complete poultry newbs and the whole of it only covers the last few days.
Our family had long talked about getting into raising poultry and decided this was the year since all the kids are now old enough to be full participants. I'm certain we've done plenty of things wrong, or maybe better put, not as well as they could have been done regarding preparation but we dove in with both feet acquiring 6 chickens (2 wyandottes, jersey giant, polish, white rock and a orloff) about 3 weeks ago and just picked up 6 ducklings (pekin, swedish blue, khaki campbell, 2 cayugas and a magpie) today. We plan to pick up 4 more chickens in about another month and two geese in May. For those curious about the space, we've got 5 rural acres so no worries about ordinance issues and having things like roosters. It's unincorporated and ag zoned.
So far things have went fairly well. We did lose a jersey giant chick on the 3rd day we had them home which is still baffling us as the chick exhibited no signs of any issues only a couple of hours before death. That chick was replaced by another jersey giant conceivably from the same batch from the hatchery that's been doing fine as well as the others so what ever it was seemed isolated to that one bird. The advice we'd pulled off of the forums here as been very helpful and we've certainly used a lot of it in these first three weeks with those chickens.
I can't say much about the ducklings yet as they've only been here about 5 hours. We've got 3 different brooders with all the birds still in the house right now, (the chickens and ducks are currently in different rooms). All the ducklings seem fine so far except one of the cayugas. This one is a bit smaller than all the other ducklings and seems to want to sleep a lot more than the others. The duckling (my kids call Thing 2) is able to get around fine (no walking issues) and seems to drink fine but we've never seen him/her eat yet. All the other ducklings have been chowing down but not this other. We've introduced the duckling to the food both alone and while the others were eating but no interest. We were told the duckling is only about a day to a day and a half old (I'm skeptical) and I wonder if perhaps the duckling isn't eating because there's still plenty of food inside her/him and maybe there's nothing to be concern with. I do notice that the duckling doesn't seem to want to open one eye and only about half opens the other which raises the concern of a sight issue. I'm still thinking it's too early to tell what's going on. The little duckling has had a hard last 24 I'm sure and stress is probably a bit of a factor here. Right now we got the softest red heat lamp running for them and I've got them on electrolyte water. I'm debating on switching to a probiotic mix for the evening if the little one doesn't perk up a bit and hopefully start eating.
If the issue of note eating continues I can start a thread on the duck forum.
Once again hello everyone and I'm certain I'll have some questions as this family poultry adventure continues.
Here's our story from the beginning - don't worry it's short because we're complete poultry newbs and the whole of it only covers the last few days.
Our family had long talked about getting into raising poultry and decided this was the year since all the kids are now old enough to be full participants. I'm certain we've done plenty of things wrong, or maybe better put, not as well as they could have been done regarding preparation but we dove in with both feet acquiring 6 chickens (2 wyandottes, jersey giant, polish, white rock and a orloff) about 3 weeks ago and just picked up 6 ducklings (pekin, swedish blue, khaki campbell, 2 cayugas and a magpie) today. We plan to pick up 4 more chickens in about another month and two geese in May. For those curious about the space, we've got 5 rural acres so no worries about ordinance issues and having things like roosters. It's unincorporated and ag zoned.
So far things have went fairly well. We did lose a jersey giant chick on the 3rd day we had them home which is still baffling us as the chick exhibited no signs of any issues only a couple of hours before death. That chick was replaced by another jersey giant conceivably from the same batch from the hatchery that's been doing fine as well as the others so what ever it was seemed isolated to that one bird. The advice we'd pulled off of the forums here as been very helpful and we've certainly used a lot of it in these first three weeks with those chickens.
I can't say much about the ducklings yet as they've only been here about 5 hours. We've got 3 different brooders with all the birds still in the house right now, (the chickens and ducks are currently in different rooms). All the ducklings seem fine so far except one of the cayugas. This one is a bit smaller than all the other ducklings and seems to want to sleep a lot more than the others. The duckling (my kids call Thing 2) is able to get around fine (no walking issues) and seems to drink fine but we've never seen him/her eat yet. All the other ducklings have been chowing down but not this other. We've introduced the duckling to the food both alone and while the others were eating but no interest. We were told the duckling is only about a day to a day and a half old (I'm skeptical) and I wonder if perhaps the duckling isn't eating because there's still plenty of food inside her/him and maybe there's nothing to be concern with. I do notice that the duckling doesn't seem to want to open one eye and only about half opens the other which raises the concern of a sight issue. I'm still thinking it's too early to tell what's going on. The little duckling has had a hard last 24 I'm sure and stress is probably a bit of a factor here. Right now we got the softest red heat lamp running for them and I've got them on electrolyte water. I'm debating on switching to a probiotic mix for the evening if the little one doesn't perk up a bit and hopefully start eating.
If the issue of note eating continues I can start a thread on the duck forum.
Once again hello everyone and I'm certain I'll have some questions as this family poultry adventure continues.
and Welcome To BYC! Congratulations on the new chicks and ducklings! Sorry about the JG chick you lost and the problem duckling. TwoCrows gave you some good advice on caring for him, if he is drinking, you could try making a thin gruel out of the starter you are feeding and seeing if he takes to that better. Hope he does OK.
