Just 6 weeks til my ducklings arrive....lend me your wisdom

[DucksOhio]

I am super excited to be getting quackers.
It has been a long long long time since I had some.

I have a nice big chicken run that I will be mucking out, adding sand, putting in a pond and adding the cute little buggers. The coop is my 8x14 chicken coop that has electric in it.

I have way more chickens than I need so that will be getting handled before the ducks are in there. I am reducing my chicken numbers so they can live happily in my 6x8 chicken house.
Yes the ducks are getting the bigger space.



Me too! I had silver appleyards when I lived in the sticks. Well and cayuga, black swedish and pekin as well.....the appleyards were very pretty.
I am thinking the welsh should be just as enjoyable but in a smaller package.
Hubs doesn't want boring black ducks lol....black ducks ARE NOT boring.

I raised welshies last spring and they are very sweet girls. You made a good decision to go with sexed ducklings.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I raised welshies last spring and they are very sweet girls. You made a good decision to go with sexed ducklings.

I hope so. My hubs is very anti drake anti rooster but I snuck a drake into the order.


Next spring I can let a broody hatch a few as well as sell hatching eggs....at least that is my plan.

 

[Isaac 0]

I have always wanted Welshies, from what I've heard about them it sounds like you made a good choice!

 

[PirateGirl]

@21hens-incharge I love my drake. I also feel like my girls would be lost without him. He does have his "favorite" hen that gets pretty beat up at times from breeding, but he is very friendly to all of them and makes sure they get food and water first and rounds them up and leads them into their house at night. It's actually one of my duck hens that can be nasty towards the chickens.

 

[Hawklady75]

Mind how deep your po

I ordered the smaller Welsh harliquins.
I am hoping they are as sweet as the ducks I had so very long ago.



I will look at those cement tubs too.
I am wanting easy to clean and still big enough for the ducks to enjoy.

Mind how deep your pool is if your chickens have access too. Chickens cannot swim and if they cant easily get out, they will drown.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I love my drakes[3] and their girls love them.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Mind how deep your po

Mind how deep your pool is if your chickens have access too. Chickens cannot swim and if they cant easily get out, they will drown.

I keep my mama hens separated from the waterfowl when we have chicks, after they get up in age around 3-4 weeks I am thinking mama teaches them, they are around buckets of water and pools and I haven 't ever lost one. I had to learn the hard way though lost one to a bucket of water when I first started with chickens and chicks.

 

[Isaac 0]

Welcome to BYC! @Hawklady75

 

[21hens-incharge]

Mind how deep your po

Mind how deep your pool is if your chickens have access too. Chickens cannot swim and if they cant easily get out, they will drown.

I won't be keeping them in the same space or run. The chickens will have an entirely separate house and run. I already have 2 separate spaces.

When I was out in the country my ducks had 1/3rd of an acre fenced in. A neighbors rooster made it into the pen......they drowned him.

With me keeping a drake and their anatomy being vastly different than a roosters.....yeah NO chickens in that space ever.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I don't think they are ugly. I have seen pics of them dropped into a simple deck (thinking it is to cut down on mud from splashing) and thought that it looked pretty good.

I really like this idea.