New duck and geese mom! What do I need?

[MissPeep]

Hi all! So far I have chicken, turkey, and quail, and I’ve decided to add geese and ducks to the flock. What do in need to know for setting up their brooder? Is it the same as chickens? How often should they have bath time before they can head out into their run? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Callender Girl]

In my experience, the biggest difference between chicks in a brooder and ducklings or geese in a brooder is the amount of mess. There's a reason they're called "waterfowl." Others may be more successful, but I never found a way to keep the water mess to a minimum.

I tried putting the water in a little butter tub half filled with glass marbles to keep the littles from jumping in. I tried putting a pie pan under a commercial baby chicken waterer to catch the splashes and spills. I cleaned the brooder multiple times a day. They're just plain messy -- and wonderful.

I didn't let my ducklings and goslings "bathe" until it was warm out and they were old enough that they could easily walk in and out of the water, which -- depending on the birds and weather -- was several weeks old.

Good luck and best wishes with adding to your flock!

 

[CluckerFamily]

I used things I already had but ducklings are different. I laid down two xl dog kennel trays, I had a plastic fence that fits perfectly around the trays, I placed the waterer and feeder on cookie sheets that have the cooling racks in the cookie sheet. I was able to find a very shallow plastic tote that I used when the duckling grew, then the waterer went in the tote also.
When I purchased my first batch of ducklings this spring, it was still below zero on days so swimming happened in the bathtub.

 

[chicken1234]

Ducks are so cute but so messy and they don't need to swim until they are at least almost feathered in so don't worry about a pool. Provide enough water that they can dunk their heads to rinse their beaks and clean their eyes. After the second week I used a plastic ice tea container, cut round holes out of one side and laid that in. Worked great for the water mess but I moved them out to the coop after three weeks with a heat lamp. Way too smelly for my living room! They grow crazy fast too! If you get geese get at least two from what I have read. They need to have their own kind.
Also if you are going to house them together consider coop door size. We had to modify ours for runner duck height lol. You would for a goose height and width too.

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

The best way I've found to maintain the water mess, is a slice container (think those real thin cake storage containers) with holes drilled in lid and then their waterer sat on top. The tricky part with getting a good waterer is they should be able to put their nostrils in the water too to blow out the gunk. For this a margine container with holes cut in lid is great. A good hack for bath time when little, is one of those paint roller trays with water in paint section, allows them to walk out of water if tired. Though they are lots of fun to watch in a tub as they torpedo under water. Ducks are alot of fun (I like to think geese could be too) and you'll learn alot as you go.

 

[My2butterflies]

They are so different from other birds
Like you, I had a variety of other birds. Guineas, turkeys, chickens. So I’m not new to brooding little ones, but waterfowl..... oh boy! They are beyond messy and smelly! It’s pretty crazy. Haha.
I started with two pekins back in April. They have since been moved outside to their coop and free range outside now. But this was their brooder setup.

That tray under their water dish filled up so fast and was so gross to clean. I started with this same setup with my next group, but changed it up because it just wasn’t working.
My group I have now is 5 ducks and 2 goslings. This is their temporary setup and what is working best to keep water mess down.

That’s a pie lid with a water jug that has holes big enough everyone can fit their heads in. I like this so much more because that shallow waterer I don’t think was deep enough for them to get their nostrils clean. And I’ve seen my pekins outside clean their noses.... It is shocking the gunk they blow out
For water play time I’m using a disposable paint tray. They love it Of course we can only go outside like this when it’s warm enough. We hit a cool down today now so they won’t be out till it warms back up.

Even though they are such messy smelly little things they are also so awesome It’s worth the short term grossness. Haha.