HELP! Incubator quit day 26!

[Lacrystol]

So cute!! I'm so glad they have thrived for you!!

So have you moved them outside? I had to move mine outside at 3 weeks, and that's been 2 weeks ago. Temps have dipped to low 40's and they have been fine! They love their new yard and pool so much better than a cage indoors. Most folks do not recommend moving them outside until they are fully feathered, 6-8 weeks.

NOT me 3 weeks they are out!!, they do fine as long as they have a safe area at night to feel secure. Although my little buggers are to smart, they will come up to the house and sit by the garage door and wait for me to bring them in. YEH, they spend ALLL day outside but at night, they are like UH I DON"T THINK SO LADY.. they just don't want to group up yet. LOL

 

[Lacrystol]

I was cleaning my coop this weekend and found a Nest sort of speaking, of Worms, OMG, my little ones WENT CRAZY. LOL..

 

[WVduckchick]

NOT me 3 weeks they are out!!, they do fine as long as they have a safe area at night to feel secure. Although my little buggers are to smart, they will come up to the house and sit by the garage door and wait for me to bring them in. YEH, they spend ALLL day outside but at night, they are like UH I DON"T THINK SO LADY.. they just don't want to group up yet. LOL

LMAO! I don't think so lady!! That's funny. I am so glad to hear you say 3 weeks. I'm not sure how people deal with it for 6-8, my house was starting to smell like a barn! Mine stick together like glue. I worry if I look out the window and just see 3, I panic and have to find the 4th, but its always just hidden from my view behind another one, or behind a tree or something. They never get 10 feet from each other!!

 

[Lacrystol]

LMAO! I don't think so lady!! That's funny. I am so glad to hear you say 3 weeks. I'm not sure how people deal with it for 6-8, my house was starting to smell like a barn! Mine stick together like glue. I worry if I look out the window and just see 3, I panic and have to find the 4th, but its always just hidden from my view behind another one, or behind a tree or something. They never get 10 feet from each other!!

I'll have to take pics, you'll see, once it gets dark BOOM, there they are right by the door waiting. AND THEY DON"T MOVE until that door is opened. They all curl up in a ball and sleep but the minute someone is close by, BOOM, they start peeping. LOL, sooo funny, but I'm like listen guys, it's time to hang out with the adults, your old enough, you don't need to be in the house anymore because you have an aweful way of trashing the place so lets go and be big ducks.

No matter how many times I say this to them, they don't listen, worst then really kids. LOL

What's really funny is seeing five little ducks walking from the back of the yard all the way up to the house. LOL.. Scouring the yard on there way up. LOL

 

[Homesteadin]

I seriously worry about predators, too! Maybe it's just a newbie paranoia, but I don't know how I'll be able to relax with them outside unless I'm always watching.

Lol to the duckies waiting to come inside at night

Lacrystol and WVduckchick do you let them free range your property/yard that early - starting at three weeks? If so how do they already know to stick around?

 

[Lacrystol]

Yes mine free ranges but the little guys do not wander off, they stick right by the coops. If I go out there and hang with them, like when I'm cleaning a coop, they will follow me round but only for a short time, then they are off into the pond..

 

[WVduckchick]

I penned off a section of my yard, its about 50' x 50', so not really free-range, but plenty big for 4 ducks. But its not covered. I live a few miles from a small airport (commuter plane, not huge planes) and its funny when they hear/see a plane, they tilt their head and look up! Lol but my property adjoins alot of wooded area, and my neighbors have seen hawks, etc, and I know we have some skunks and possums around. But my dogs have a doggie door in and out of the house, and share the rest of the yard that I didn't pen off, so they bark at anything coming and going. But I will always worry to a certain extent.

 

[Homesteadin]

You both have a pretty nice set-up it sounds like. We live on the flat, eastern plains with no trees and no bodies of water, so don't let my duckies in on what they're missing. We have about 7 acres and do plan to free range them, but since these are our first birds and we don't have any "grown ups" to help show them where home always is, I am supposing we'll have to go about that a little more slowly and with some training. No way am I going to let them galavant around with no one outside with them for now - I see hawks flying around everyday! They like our ground squirrels - and I could care less about those - but if one of our baby ducks got swept away

 

[Watermelon123]

I am so sorry.

 

[Homesteadin]

 I am so sorry. 

Oh I was just sayin' I'd bawl if that happened. No duckling snacks for hawks yet