ideas for our brooder *pics*

[ROCKIN R FARM]

for your ducklings you will feed them water fowl feed and not medicated chick feed. Once they get older and on regular chick feed or duck feed, you can get a bag of All Flock Raiser I think its called from your feed store or TSC. The bag I think is like a green color, and you will see pics of all the animals on there. chickens, ducks, geese, turkey ect. It is made by Purina. You can use that to feed your chickens and ducks with.
The ducks and chickens I had last year all ran together when they free ranged even ate together. They did not give each other a hard time at all.
I think I kept my ducks seperate only because they liked to play in the water and was hard to keep the chickens waterer full all the time with the ducks playing in it. so we set a coop up for the ducks right next to the chickens and we put in a small kiddy pool with water in it, food on the other side of the coop so they could not dip the food in the water.
when we fed the chickens bread, tortillas, fruit ect. the ducks ate it as well.

 

[barnyard betty]

Quote:
Thanks ROCKIN R FARM...I have seen that brand where I get my chicken feed. We usually get the LAYENA kind because we weren't sure if the Flock Raiser was good for laying hens, but we will probably switch to the Flock Raiser once my ducklings are old enough to be out with the chickens.

About what age does anyone think is ok to introduce the ducks to the rest of the flock? When they feather out? Or when they are big enough to be more able to defend themselves if needed? My ducklings are so very sweet, mellow and shy....where my chickens and baby chicks are so spunky and very "in-yer-face" hahaha!

 

[highpointfarm]

Thanks for the input!!
Coolcanoechick...I like the lighting you have above it in addition to the heat light...I gotta get some sort of light more directly overhead other than the general room light and heat light like you have. Is that a perch I see in the pic? I was wondering if they need one or would use one?
And I surely have a lot of sod clumps I can throw in there for pecking...thanks for the tip yinzerchick!

I really wanted enough room so I can easily handle them and separate them by sex or breed or whatever once the time comes. Until then, they are having a bast testing their wings and have plenty of room to roam around.
I built a second, identical brooder (I haven't painted or put lid on yet) that I can use once they get bigger...or for the ducklings we have that just hatched.

Hey...does anyone have any advice on raising ducklings and chicks together? They are about one week apart in age. Should I put them together or keep separate? I heard that you shouldn't use medicated chick food for ducks? What other feed can you use, and what kind of homemade treats can ducks have?? Do they do well sharing the same coops and yard once they are all older? any special feeding differences or care? I would like to be able to have my ducks (just 2 right now) move in with my adult flock and my chicks eventually but don't know if that works.

Any advice on this would be great!

1. They will have a BLAST on a little perch, Especially when they get older, they will just lay there for hours at a time -[
2. I have never raised ducks but i have heard from several reliable sources that you can raise chickens, ducks, geese, turkey, quail, and guini hens together until they are 1 year old.... but after that, they will seperate into their own little flocks...

 

[barnyard betty]

1. They will have a BLAST on a little perch, Especially when they get older, they will just lay there for hours at a time -[
2. I have never raised ducks but i have heard from several reliable sources that you can raise chickens, ducks, geese, turkey, quail, and guini hens together until they are 1 year old.... but after that, they will seperate into their own little flocks...

Hummm....interesting, is that due to the sexual maturity kicking in? So you are saying they will themselves segregate into little clicks? And if so, will they pretty much ignore each other given they all have enough room? Or do you mean they should be separated?
I have already seen my chicks playing king of the mountain on top of the gallon waterer...the first one up was...the littlest one, go figure LOL! Now they ALL believe it is mandatory to try to get up there until someone kicks them off....sooo funny!

 

[highpointfarm]

Hummm....interesting, is that due to the sexual maturity kicking in? So you are saying they will themselves segregate into little clicks? And if so, will they pretty much ignore each other given they all have enough room? Or do you mean they should be separated?
I have already seen my chicks playing king of the mountain on top of the gallon waterer...the first one up was...the littlest one, go figure LOL! Now they ALL believe it is mandatory to try to get up there until someone kicks them off....sooo funny!

I have no idea why, but if they are confined together IE in the coop or pen, They will start to get along less and less starting at a year.... plus ducks will make a mess out of everything... What i like to do is have 2 levels of perches... LOL it is so funny to just sit their and watch them....

Caleb

 

[ROCKIN R FARM]

Thanks ROCKIN R FARM...I have seen that brand where I get my chicken feed. We usually get the LAYENA kind because we weren't sure if the Flock Raiser was good for laying hens, but we will probably switch to the Flock Raiser once my ducklings are old enough to be out with the chickens.

About what age does anyone think is ok to introduce the ducks to the rest of the flock? When they feather out? Or when they are big enough to be more able to defend themselves if needed? My ducklings are so very sweet, mellow and shy....where my chickens and baby chicks are so spunky and very "in-yer-face" hahaha!

you are welcome.

 

[chkngrndma]

Love your brooder pics! You did a great job. I am posting mine as a slight variation. I have never had chicks before but we got eggs for my 3 yo daughters birthday, and ended up with 3 little chicks! Anyway, I wanted a brooder for easy cleaning so I basically built a similar box with doors on the front. I used a standard 'under the bed' storage bin that you could easily pull out and dump for cleaning. I've also included some sticks for 'roosts'. This was whipped together very quickly as "Rosie" decided to hatch 3+ days early! So, no painting or any fancy extras, but it's working as designed! Also, I just had to throw the screens on top as at 2 weeks of age our "runt" (Rosie) was flying up on top of the brooder. It's at least 24"! I am planning to put some sod in there, that's a great idea. I take them out to the driveway/yard every couple days and they love the adventure and peck at everything! p.s. that's my daughter's drawing of the coop she wants to build on the floor!

 

[ChickiesInUtah]

That's a very nice, well built brooder! Our poor chicks are sitting in a Rubbermaid tub.

Luckily it's out to the coop next week for them.

 

[StarryEyzz]

That's a very nice, well built brooder! Our poor chicks are sitting in a Rubbermaid tub.

Luckily it's out to the coop next week for them.

Our chicks went from a Rubbermaid Tub to a hand made pen of pallets. At one point we weren't ready to make the coop so we extended the brooder/pen by another pallet length. FINALLY getting that coop built this week

 

[furbabymum]

I've got 3 very large dog kennels in use as brooders in our barn "coop".