Introduction/questions about raising my new birds: am I doing it right?

[FrankieDoodle]

Welcome to BYC!!! Your birds are adorable!

 

[Lazy Farmer]

hello! My name is Robin.

My family is relatively new to chickens, but we have had a lot of experience with other animals, especially since our great grandparents owned a farm when they were alive. This is our first time taking care of birds, though, and I'm a little nervous.

We have 7 birds, 6 chickens, and one duck, all 3-4 weeks old.

Even though we all collectively take care of them, we thought it best to let each of our family members pick a few chickens each to take care of. My dad and brother didn't choose any because they both have to be gone for most of the day, but my mother chose three white egg-laying chicks, my youngest sister chose a brown sex link chick, my second youngest sister chose a barred Plymouth Rock chick, and I chose a black sex link chick and a Muscovy duckling.

I was looking for information on how to properly raise these sweet little birds when I came across this website, and after ending up here enough, I decided I would sign up.

Everyone in my family loves taking care of animals, and I spend lots of my free time either on nature walks, observing the more wild critters around our property, playing with our pets, watching tv shows and YouTube, and playing video games.

The non-bird pets we currently have are:

a calico cat named Asha,
a brown/grey tabby kitten named Peregrine (or Peri, for short!),
a Dark blonde Guinea pig with black patches named Cookie,
a white and blonde Guinea pig named Cream,
a (violent) white lop-eared rabbit named Bailey (I swear, she's out to kill me, and I don't know why!),
a grey and white rat named Medli,
a blonde rat named Zelda,
a white rat named Tatl,
and a little grey axolotl named Happstablook (Blooky for short).

We used to have a dog named Willow, a gecko named Oscar, and a rat named Midna, but they passed away a little while ago, due to old age...

Anyway, I was kinda hoping for some feedback on how we are doing with raising the birds, since we are new to this. They are 3-4 weeks old and seem to be doing okay, but I want to be sure!

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This is them in their homemade brooder. We made it by covering the outside of our old dog crate with chicken wire, then wiring the heat lamp to the top left. The bedding is Timothy hay on top of a plywood base, which is set in a plastic tray. There is a long plastic feeder full of duck grower pellets, a smaller glass and metal gravity feeder with duck starter (I heard it's alright to keep the chicks on that for now) a large plastic waterer, a long branch stripped of bark and cleaned as a roost, a basket with a plush dragon in it that the chicks perch on and the duck plays with, and a little plastic ball with a bell inside the duck plays with. There's also a thermometer fixed to the top, so we know what temperature it is.

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Despite our attempts to avoid splayed legs in the duck, they ended up with it anyway, and we don't know why! We made sure the bedding wasn't slippery or hard to walk on. Anyway, we've made a splint for them, and they seem to be getting better. It is made by wrapping gauze padding around each of the legs, then using a hairband to pull the legs together. Then we cover it in gauze tape.

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I know this is way too long, but I have one more concern. We don't know what gender our duckling is! This normally wouldn't be a problem, but I've heard that male ducks can kill hens if you keep them together! I don't want that happening, but I don't want to separate the duck from the chicks, because of how attached they've gotten to them. I can't even take the duck out without raven (my black sex-link chick)!

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Can anyone tell me how to tell the gender of my duck? And if they're a male, what do I do? I will try to attach pictures of all the birds in the brooder, as well as pictures of raven and webbs (my chick and duckling) out of the brooder so you can see them better. Any help is appreciated!

Wow! What an entrance! Thanks for joining our community. Always a pleasure meeting and greeting new additions here at BYC. I hope you enjoy the web site as much as I do.

Hi and welcome to BYC. I think your chicks could manage without the heat lamp at this age.

These links may be interesting

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/category/hatching-eggs-raising-chickens.22/

Any questions that you may have regarding your chicks will be best posted here - http://www.backyardchickens.com/f/11/raising-baby-chicks

Best wishes
Pork Pie

Good post Ken & X2 on your reply to bringing the OP's questions to those other forums. The above links you have posted has ten fold the traffic of BYCers whom would love to help v.s. the introduction forum which receives far less traffic. Thank you for always being so helpful.

 

[ronott1]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens!

The ducklings are very cute