New chick and duck mom

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Chick and duck mom

Chirping
Aug 14, 2021
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I've begun a new mom for about 6 months now. Those little chicks and ducks were so cute at the tractor supply store. We were only going to do chicks, but the ducks were irresistible. Got them home, knew nothing. Looked online, found this site. So much help. Well it was March and cold outside. No barn, no coop or pen. So they got put in the spare bedroom in big plastic boxes. Our neighbor gave us a heat lamp. First off the ducklings started pecking the chicks. So we put them in separate boxes. Then I discovered you had to put a lot of water in the box for the ducklings for their food. So much to learn in so short a time. By the second day, no one was cute anymore. I had pasty butt on chicks, I'm going what?? So figured our how to fix that. Yuck. The best part, oh yeah more, ducks are messy. I'm not talking mess on the bottom of the box. It was everywhere. Not just food and water, but duck poop too. Well cleaning 2-3 times a day fixed that. Oh boy. Finally, they were old enough to go in the tub for a few hours a day. So I was only cleaning twice a day. The tub was real ugly when they got done. Oh, did I mention the spare room is upstairs, so I was carrying 5 gallon buckets up and down the stairs. Guess what? The best part? Those cute duck feet have sharp claws. Gloves after that. Where was my husband? Building the pen and coop.
So, I've survived. All are healthy, ended up with 9 chickens and 2 roos, 2 drakes and 1 duck hen. Wow. So ongoing learning. Thank goodness for a commonsense site.
 
Sounds like you jumped in with both feet and had quite a learning curve! Congrats on getting everyone through it. Good work!

I chuckled about your brooding location; I also brood babies in an upstairs -- and inconvenient -- upstairs bedroom with no access to water on that floor.

Hope all your ducks are getting along. GENERALLY, you want more hens than drakes. Three of my first four ducks were males, and although I didn't see any overbreeding problems, I did add more girls.

In any case, there's plenty of information and advice available from BYC members. Take advantage and enjoy; welcome to our flock!
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
Wow. Rough start. I would rehome one of the cockerels and one of the drakes and hope that the cockerel and drake you keep don't start fighting. Do you plan to house them separately? A drake can kill a chicken hen trying to mate her. Incompatible parts.
 

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