ok, so this may be long please bear with me. I will try to keep things relevant but it’ll be specific as i would be willing to be there are few in my position.
Due to a series of unfortunate events (house fire with loss of brooder occupants, and then death of a shipped duckling which was supposed to replace brooder occupants with a gap in age between the ducklings) i find myself trying to integrate a single (lone survivor) duckling raised with chicks, ducklings of the same age and ducklings 3 weeks younger than them into the same flock. So far the only duck survivor of the fire (L’orange) and the 5 surviving chicks have been stuck to each other like glue. I successfully integrated them into my flock of 4 hens and now they “share” a coop and yard. I have 4 ducklings in the brooder which are a couple weeks old and not yet ready to join the outside world (its still chilly here in SE Wisconsin) and newly hatched chicks with 3 more ducklings on the way. Key point is how do I best integrate the lone duck with other ducks even with it being the oldest and biggest of them? And are there any pointers to integrating ducklings and chicks raised together? Should i let them be one flock, then separate them or integrate them separately then let them forage together (as is my plan once the yard fencing is complete)?
I realize that a mixed blessing about this whole situation is that the ducklings (even the newest ones) by necessity have been and are being raised with chicks (owing to only 1 brooder available for both species due to the timing) so allowing them to forage together in the yard will be less stressful but I am not sure how to integrate the one duck that was raised with chickens into a flock of ducks that is younger than it is. Maybe complicating this is that i know the purchased ducklings are all female, but the lone survivor was part of a straight (Pekin) run so i have no idea what its sex is.
I will say that at first once they were all in the same space, I thought i had 2 flocks… one being the older hens (purchased as older pullets or laying hens) and the youngins (survivors) but now they are sleeping in the same coop. Albeit on different sides.
How long do i have to toss any newcomers into the brooder to consider them “growing up” together and not have to worry about separating them for any length of time?
Due to a series of unfortunate events (house fire with loss of brooder occupants, and then death of a shipped duckling which was supposed to replace brooder occupants with a gap in age between the ducklings) i find myself trying to integrate a single (lone survivor) duckling raised with chicks, ducklings of the same age and ducklings 3 weeks younger than them into the same flock. So far the only duck survivor of the fire (L’orange) and the 5 surviving chicks have been stuck to each other like glue. I successfully integrated them into my flock of 4 hens and now they “share” a coop and yard. I have 4 ducklings in the brooder which are a couple weeks old and not yet ready to join the outside world (its still chilly here in SE Wisconsin) and newly hatched chicks with 3 more ducklings on the way. Key point is how do I best integrate the lone duck with other ducks even with it being the oldest and biggest of them? And are there any pointers to integrating ducklings and chicks raised together? Should i let them be one flock, then separate them or integrate them separately then let them forage together (as is my plan once the yard fencing is complete)?
I realize that a mixed blessing about this whole situation is that the ducklings (even the newest ones) by necessity have been and are being raised with chicks (owing to only 1 brooder available for both species due to the timing) so allowing them to forage together in the yard will be less stressful but I am not sure how to integrate the one duck that was raised with chickens into a flock of ducks that is younger than it is. Maybe complicating this is that i know the purchased ducklings are all female, but the lone survivor was part of a straight (Pekin) run so i have no idea what its sex is.
I will say that at first once they were all in the same space, I thought i had 2 flocks… one being the older hens (purchased as older pullets or laying hens) and the youngins (survivors) but now they are sleeping in the same coop. Albeit on different sides.
How long do i have to toss any newcomers into the brooder to consider them “growing up” together and not have to worry about separating them for any length of time?
