My Love Affair With Ducks...

[shawluvsbirds]

Okay, good idea! I hadn’t thought of that. That’s what I do for chicks so I don’t know why I didn’t think of that for the ducks. For whatever reason, in my mind, these ducks seem to mature so much faster than chicks, but they’re still just babies.

And like Patty said I'm sure you could kick them off of it at 5 weeks.
I just generally consider six weeks full grown.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

My ducks have full access to food an water 24x7.
I know they're making a big mess in their living room, but i have a broom and a water hose to solve that, have to hose down the wooden floor every 2-3 days and the mess flows straight into the compost pile and keeps that moist and fertilized.
The reason why i do that is my job: I sometimes end up in an endless conference call with some customer's in another part of the world in the evening and night hours and simply won't wake up early in the morning to release the quackers.
I'm currently working on an automatic duck-door which may change this in the future, but for now they have water and food in their dining room.

 

[Mimi13]

Speaking of waterers, when I was reading on Metzer’s website, they use nipple waterers for all their breeding stock. They said they do not offer deep water for rinsing nares or dunking heads. They feed pellets and the ducks do fine using nipples. And only allow swimming access to once a week. Doesn’t that seem a bit cruel?

Speaking of feed, I finally picked up two bags of Kalmbach 20% Flock Maker. Of course, I couldn’t read the mill date on the tag, wouldn’t you know! I opened it expecting a muffin mix smell, but got a different smell instead. Now people’s smellers are all different so I’m not gonna panic, but what I smelled seemed more of a ‘seasoning’ type smell than a sweet goodie smell. It smelled good, but not like a muffin mix. I sprinkled out some on the deck for the nosy chickens that had gathered and they immediately ate it up. Should I worry about this?

 

[Mimi13]

My ducks have full access to food an water 24x7.
I know they're making a big mess in their living room, but i have a broom and a water hose to solve that, have to hose down the wooden floor every 2-3 days and the mess flows straight into the compost pile and keeps that moist and fertilized.
The reason why i do that is my job: I sometimes end up in an endless conference call with some customer's in another part of the world in the evening and night hours and simply won't wake up early in the morning to release the quackers.
I'm currently working on an automatic duck-door which may change this in the future, but for now they have water and food in their dining room.

Well now, mine don’t have the luxury of a wash-down dining room or I might consider a 24/7, neon lite cafe! Until I get all the birds integrated, the ducks only have about a 25 sf space (not including the sleeping area which is another 25 sf) for inside food and water. I will have to deal with the wetness for a few more weeks, but then I think I’ll keep the feed out of the enclosed area. I have been waiting about an hour after sun up to let the ducks out into their pen, only because it isn’t predator proof, and I don’t want to take any chance. But then again, I’ve never seen anything other than a squirrel in the yard that early.

Dear oh dear, such decisions.

 

[Knighstar679]

Post some pics of your babies.

Here are my babies. Well a few. The Welshies are already quacking/honking at me. They have really been feathering out nicely.

Honor
Mercy
Azure
Blue
Judge with an Azure photo bomb.

 

[Mimi13]

Here are my babies. Well a few. The Welshies are already quacking/honking at me. They have really been feathering out nicely.

View attachment 2116222 Honor
View attachment 2116223Mercy
View attachment 2116224Azure
View attachment 2116225Blue
View attachment 2116226Judge with an Azure photo bomb.

Wow! Beautiful! Are all those WH? If so, I wasn’t aware they came in different colors. But then again, when it comes to ducks I’m not really aware of anything! Your ducklings are feathered out much more than mine I think.

 

[Knighstar679]

Wow! Beautiful! Are all those WH? If so, I wasn’t aware they came in different colors. But then again, when it comes to ducks I’m not really aware of anything! Your ducklings are feathered out much more than mine I think.

Three are welsh. The others are call. Judge, Honor, and Mercy are all welsh. They were hatched on April 1st.

I am not sure why mine are so feathered out at 4 weeks. But I am glad as I don’t have a covered run to put them in yet they can’t hangout outside yet as we keep getting rain.

 

[Mimi13]

@duluthralphie, I got to thinking (which can be dangerous), but I decided that you need something like Latte that’ll stand up to you!

 

[Mimi13]

Three are welsh. The others are call. Judge, Honor, and Mercy are all welsh. They were hatched on April 1st.

I am not sure why mine are so feathered out at 4 weeks. But I am glad as I don’t have a covered run to put them in yet they can’t hangout outside yet as we keep getting rain.

Oh, okay, I see the difference now. My WH seems much lighter than yours. And those Calls are precious.

 

[Mimi13]

Is this all ducks do all day?