I have ventured into a foreign land...

[MissAnnieFrannie]

And found myself reading about duckies! I have many chicks in the brooder right now, with a few "teenagers" ready to go out to the big girl yard...

Just wondering,

What are the brooding differences between ducklings and chicks?

 

[kandyg_99]

Not much different but I warn you Ducks are messy and you will cleaning the brooder more with ducklings.

 

[MissAnnieFrannie]

Oh, I dont know if I could ever actually have ducks, I am more curious than anything really

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Baby ducks like lots of water to make a total mess with! LOL Actually only after they are a few days older though. they have to have water to eat with. I would not brood chicks with ducks. I am planning on a separate brooder for mine. More than 20 years ago we did not even have a brooder light to raise our ducks and geese. We had them in a cardboard box in the house. They grew and survived very well for the first few weeks and then we put them outside. How crazy we were then. The neighbors dogs got them and we haven't gotten more til this year when we have several breeds coming to us next month.

I am trying to get waterfowl starter in but use a non medicated chick starter so may have to go with that. just gotta make sure there is always plenty of water and it will have to be changed often during the day as well as clean bedding more often than chicks. But duckies are so worth it! Oh how I remember how cute and precious they were. I can't wait to get mine now!
The heat lamp is about the same but I think ducks are bit hardier than chicks. I still plan to raise them a like in many ways but separately and then they will go into their own little ducky pen with 2 pools and their own coop.

 

[gryeyes]

I've ventured there... I have 2 Cayuga ducklings at the same time I have four chicks. First I had them in the same brooder, with a hardware cloth divider so they could see each other and get to know each other, without those ducky webbed feet stomping on any chicks. But the ducks grew so fast I had to give them a second brooder of their own.

Ducks put their growing energy into body size, whilst the chicks put it all into feathers. By the end of the first week, the ducks were more than twice the size of the chicks. By the second week, four times the size. I'm not kidding.

The chicks spread lovely wings, the ducks still had those silly little winglet arms, all fuzzed all over. No feathers yet. But they were HUGE in comparison to the chicks.

MUCH more frequent bedding changes in the duckling brooder.

And I've never filled a dishpan full of warm water for swimming practice for chicks, either.

Love 'em all. They'll be in the same run with everybody, but I'm building a small duck house because I don't want to clean the New Big Coop as much as it would need with ducks living in it. That's the PLAN, anyway. We'll see where the ducks decide they want to sleep.... unless I force the issue. Hmmmmm.