New duck Momma!

[Coldbreeze]

Hello all! I have 3 ducklings!

Jayke is the bigger duckling (pekin) and the little ones are white crested (both males)

They have been inside until today when I finally was able to build them a enclosure.

Not the perfect one but it will work for now. We don't have raccoons and if anything I'm more worried about the hawks that sometimes fly over. They have been in their run all day and seem to be happy to finally be outside.

Large dog house will be built and put in the run later today and that will act as their "coop"

I plan on letting them figure out where they wanna poop before I cover that area in it but I left them a nice pile of it in the run. The run itself had fresh green grass for them. Plenty of shade to hide from the sun. We even have a pond which will be accessible to them as they get older and I get to figuring out how to make a ramp for that.


Tips on cleaning out the poop and cutting down on odors? Tips and tricks in general I would love to hear.

 

[Coldbreeze]

Jayke earlier today

 

[lexilewis2001]

Thank you. I love them to bits.

These are my two cute ducklings!

 

[CoriM]

Hi, and welcome! That's a nice grassy space for your ducks. First I would ask, what are you feeding them? Ducklings need a duck-specific food because their bodies need niacin in order to develop proper leg strength. Pekins in particular are prone to issues and deficiencies, so even if feeding a duck food you likely need to add nutritional yeast to it to make sure they get enough niacin. Hopefully all of your ducks are male as the proper ration is like one male to five females....I can't tell from the photo if you have older grown ducks. As for the coop at night, just make sure that it breathes and they get plenty of air, and that the bedding is soft on their feet. They need at least 4 square feet per duck when contained like that. You could invest in bird netting to put over the top of your run to give full protection if birds are your only predators. I live in the woods in WA state and we have all sorts of predators, including birds. My ducks live in a coop that has half inch hardware cloth all the way around and under the ground. I let them out to roam freely when supervised, and have a moveable run that's covered with bird netting that I have out in my yard for when I'm at home. When they are in that "tractor" it gets dirty quick and I usually just hose down the grass each day and rinse the poop into the ground. They tear up the grass pretty quick, so be prepared. In my opinion water to swim in is a necessity for ducks, as it's pretty much their favorite thing to do. I don't know what your pond set-up is, but feel free to post a picture and ask for advice on ramps and stepping stones, or whatever. Best of luck to you!

 

[Coldbreeze]

Jayke on his first day with us for age reference

 

[CoriM]

Well he's beautiful and probably was just a few days old when you got him. I wouldn't worry too much about how he swims, but if it were my duckling I would add the extra niacin now to prevent a problem. When my pekin was a few weeks old she just started walking less and I noticed that she had difficulty getting up. Her legs really splayed out to the side when she was sitting. I used liquid vitamin B complex and used vet wrap to pull her legs into proper position and the condition corrected in a few weeks. Here is a photo fo the vitamin - you can get it on Amazon your local feed store. You can put it on top of a treat - dosing is 1 ml per day. It will never hurt the other ducklings to have it either, and you can't over-dose. I was fermenting feed at the time, so just added a bit to their food and small waterer as well to make sure they were getting plenty, but I know some people prefer to just offer it over treats, like frozen peas.

 

[CoriM]

Everyone's set up is so different. I will attach a photo of my coop. I live in the Pacific Northwest - my weather is very wet and I have a lot of potential predators. My coop has an enclosed sleeping area that has stick-on tile on top of plywood. I put about 5-6 inches of pine shavings on top of that. I scoop it every day and top it off so it's completely clean for them each night. In the screened in run area it's half wood shavings and rounded pebbles around the pond area. I scoop the shavings area a couple times a day and hose down the pebbles once a day when I drain their little pond and refill it. There are lots of good ways to keep their area clean - I don't sprinkle or add anything extra. I have 8 ducks and don't have any issues with bad smells.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

For this run I just leave grass. Every night I take the hose and hit the poo it’s great fertilizer for the grass and it turns to water right away
For my duck house I use pine shavings
I started with hay and never again. It doesn’t absorb and goes all over. I had flies and stink up the you know what
The shavings many do it different
I prefer to go in each morning and take out all the poo from the night before.
Others will roll over and add fresh then do deep clean later. It’s what you have time to do and what works best for you
Make sure the dig house is secure as many predators come at night
It also needs proper ventilation
So adding openings at the top and use hardware cloth as a screen
You can also add a kid pool to the run for now
My ducklings are 3.5 weeks old and outside all day with a small pen to go in for shade and a kid pool to bath and cool off in
Congrats on the ducklings

 

[Coldbreeze]

Okay so hosing down seems to be a great way to get rid of poo. That can work for me. We shall see how much grass they start to consume. Right now I don't see them eating it all since they are so little.

 

[CoriM]

Did you get all three as newborn ducklings? They definitely look awkward with bare little wings as they grow, so I'm sure it's nothing you did wrong. Some people call it the ugly-duckling phase, but I think they're still so cute. I would just advise you to read through the thread on niacin-deficiency posted on "sticky threads" just because pekins are so prone to it: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/niacin-deficiency-in-waterfowl.1367557/
When I had three pekin ducklings I had one who developed splay leg and still needs to have niacin added and one that was a little pigeon-toed. I was able to turn around their conditions for the most part with liquid vitamin B complex, but I wish I had known it was such an issue from the start as it may have saved me trouble. If you notice any weakness in the legs, you'll want to address it right away.