hello everyone! so i am going to get 2 pekin ducklings in 4 days and i have absolutely nothing prepared! i don’t know what i need, i have no experience in raising ducklings and although i have done plenty of research on these ducks and the care they need, i still dont know what supplies i need for bedding and water and food. Since the ducklings are going to be inside for about a month, i still have time to build their outdoor home, but even for that i dont know what bedidng to use and what food they need. If possible, please someone let me know the required supplies for a duckling thats going to be inside, and what type of food to give ducklings and grown ducks.
Welcome to BYC! Have you read any of the threads here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ducks-sticky-topics-index.256233/
A kiddie pool works well for a brooder. If just two ducklings you could use a large plastic tub. A heat source, brood lamp or heat mat, Purina Flock raiser or similar all flock feed that has more niacin than chick starter. Some chick grit. Some brewers or nutritional yeast NOT cooking yeast that will explode the ducklings. I use pine shavings as bedding others here have used puppy pee pads.
So here’s the brooder set up we used: From Lowe’s or another hardware/home improvement store - Large (biggest gallon size we could) heavy duty storage tote - Paint pan - Paint grid/grate for a roller From Tractor Supply or other feed store: - Brood lamp and bulb - Pine shavings - Purina Flock Raiser - Chick feeder - Chick grit - Chick waterer (if ducklings are under a week old) From around your house: - Food safe tub that you don’t mind mangling. (If ducklings are over a week old) Set up the tote with the roller grid sitting the paint pan. Surround that with shavings. You can use a chick waterer, but I would heavily suggest taking a food safe tub and cutting a hole in it that’s just big enough for the ducklings to put their heads through. Elevate the chick feeder too, it’ll keep them from walking and pooping in it. Put the chick grit in a small bowl for them to eat free choice. The paint pan and grid set up helps keep your bedding nice and dry. This is the set up we used for both sets of ducklings we brooded this past year, and it worked pretty well. Just be aware that you’re going to want to clean this every other day, unless you do a “deep litter” method like we did and add fresh bedding every day. Then you can stretch it out to every three to four days. We actually bought two totes so that we could set up a clean one, move the ducklings over, and then clean the new back up one at our leisure. The brood lamp also holds nicely on the edge of a heavy duty tote. Total set up will run just around $100. Also, feel free to get some mealworms and go ahead and feed them any left over, clean, leafy greens!