I have some ducklings due to hatch this Friday or Saturday...have ?'s.

[YakLady]

I've never hatched eggs before, so this is new to me. My first batch is due to hatch this weekend. These babies are Cayuga/Pekin X. I have the incubator set up in my little boy's room, and the brooder will be in there, too. How long do these babies need to be in a brooder before they can be put in with the adults? Will the adults automatically accept them, or is there a proper way to introduce them? I let the adults out every day so that they can walk down to the creek and play all day. How old do ducklings need to be before they are allowed to go swim?

 

[MuranoFarms]

I let my ducklings swim at about 2 weeks....but that's in the bathtub. You have to supervise them till they become 'waterproof'. Their baby down will get wet and heavy so keep an eye on them and pull them out if they seem to be getting waterlogged.

I don't know about introductions, I only have a few ducks so they just sorta hang out with the chickens.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

We have adult runners, and we just introduced one muscovy 3 months, and 3 white crested 1 month to her this weekend. We just put them in the pen all together , BUT watch them because our drake was the mean one, not our female. But our flock is pretty easy going, so we had not one squabble!

 

[YakLady]

Cool! Thanks for the help.

 

[ranchhand]

Happy hatching!

Of course, you saw what happened when my 2 week olds ducks saw water! Unh uh, no way, we're not going in there!