Mum wants a duck egg

[ducksinarow]

I have heard the minis do better than the octagons at hatching. I am just a poor first time hatcher. Practice makes perfect. Oh well good luck. You can worry about the ratio after they hatch.

 

[Weirdness555]

What ratio should there be? Would we only be able to keep one drake due to fighting over ducks? Or would they happily live in pairs?

 

[Zombified]

The ratio, in general, is one drake for two hens. That being said, I do know someone who has two drakes and three hens, however they haven't done any real serious, heavy mating(they're still pretty young). She's still going to separate them during heavy mating seasons either way, just in case. I have one drake and four hens.

You can have two or more drakes easily living together without any hens.

As far as food, call whatever supplier you plan on purchasing from and asking about aflatoxin in their corn. Aflatoxin is very harmful to ducks and is also a carcinogen for people. Read more in this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/711263/u-s-drought-fallout-might-it-affect-all-of-our-ducks

There's reason to believe Dumor doesn't contain enough Niacin for ducklings. Read more in this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/826913/dumor-chick-duck-start-grower#post_12059752

Aaaand, this wouldn't be complete without a good list of treats you can give to your ducklings! Read here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/242460/the-ultimate-list-of-duck-treats-and-supplements

Ducks are a ton of fun, but they are work, and you definitely have to make sure they have lots of water(which yours clearly will). I've had a lot of fun watching my ducklings mature into beautiful juveniles, and I'll have even more fun watching them mature into adults. They're soooo rewarding! And even though they've been work, they really haven't been too difficult to care for.

I don't own Calls, but I know that Call owners do love them. I, personally, decided against them due to their noisiness, but I live in a suburb, and we would have definitely recieved complaints.

 

[Weirdness555]

We're not in the US so I guess that corn thing won't be an issue? And I've never heard of dumor, the ducklings will be getting the duck food which our pet shop will order in, they only order from companies which produce food from real ingredients instead of loads of additives and I don't think that their food will have anything dangerous in it.

 

[Zombified]

We're not in the US so I guess that corn thing won't be an issue? And I've never heard of dumor, the ducklings will be getting the duck food which our pet shop will order in, they only order from companies which produce food from real ingredients instead of loads of additives and I don't think that their food will have anything dangerous in it.

I'm not sure where other countries get their corn, but no, it probably wouldn't be an issue.

Oh that's cool! My ducks are actually about to be switched to an organic feed. They're actually on Dumor now, which is why I'm switching.

 

[Weirdness555]

Yeah, it seems that poultry food is a much bigger industry in the US, here it's quite small scale, you have to search for a pet shop to buy it from or get it online, I guess there are farm suppliers who supply in bulk though.

We don't have "feed stores" that you guys talk about

 

[mariehanson]

Just a quick mention that I am from northern England and although I just found a farm shop that sells poultry feed, my local Wilkinson's store in town has a pet section where they have a pretty good poultry selection. I know! Weird or what?! Anyway if you are having problem getting your feed from the pet store I would give Wilkinson's a try, they do delivery or you can order online and collect in store for free. They sell the feeders and waterers, vitamins such as verm-x, red mite powder and even chicken coops.
Www.wilko.com

 

[Zombified]

Oh! I completely forgot about supplements! Ducklings need to be on Niacin to make sure their legs develop well. I believe the ratio is 100mg per gallon. Make sure it's just plain Niacin, not the timed release.

 

[Weirdness555]

Wow, I never knew wilkinsons did stuff like that! It will be a useful back up if our pet shop ever closes, thanks! Our pet shop right now is great, they will order different types of food from their suppliers, they even order us quail pellets.

Ducklings NEED to be on something? That seems a little weird to me. I'm pretty sure no-one's putting that stuff in the water of wild mallards...

 

[Zombified]

It is odd, but believe me, not enough Niacin is a serious thing. There are a lot of people who have ducklings with real weak legs because they didn't give Niacin. No, it doesn't happen to every duckling, but in my opinion it happens often enough that it's a good idea to give them Niacin. Mine were also on a livestock supplement that had vitamins and electrolites in it. I can't remember what it was called. It's just a precaution. Not enough of certain vitamins can lead to physical deformities. When I got my Thoth when she was just a duckling, she had a SUPER funky head. It was tilted and she couldn't move it at all. She could eat and drink, but barely. I gave her Vitamin E as well as Poly-Vi-Sol because it has other vitamins in it, and within a week she was almost 100% normal. A few more days after that, and I was able to stop. Her head is now awesome and you would never tell that we had any issues.

So, while odd, I do believe that you're better off supplementing than not supplementing.