New Ducklings!

[disneyguy]

Hi group!

I've had a flock of chickens for a while now, and today added a Pekin and Khaki Campbell duck to the crew. (They aren't housed together - the ducklings are in their brooder!)

I'm excited to get them going! Any tips and tricks for a new duck owner? I think they are about 1-2 weeks old. My garage is 90 degrees where they are housed, so I do not have a heat lamp on them currently. They aren't panting or huddling together, so if that's all the same as with chickens, I think they are comfortable.

Thanks!

 

[Pyxis]

Congrats on the new additions? What are you feeding them? You may need to add niacin to their feed, depending on what you are feeding.

They will make a huge mess with their water, so if you haven't already, you will probably want to make a duckling waterer for them.

Lastly, do you know the genders? If one or both are drakes, you'll either want to keep them away from your chickens, or get enough females to keep them occupied (three to four females per drake) because otherwise they will likely attempt to mate your chickens, and thanks to their anatomical differences, the chickens can be seriously injured and killed by this.

 

[disneyguy]

Thanks for the reply! They are being fed a duckling starter from the feed store I purchased them from, and I'll also see how they take to chick starter.

How do I tell what genders they are? I'd love to see what I have on my hands!

 

[Pyxis]

Duckling starter is probably fine on niacin, chick starter would be too low, so stick with the duck starter.

That depends how old they are. Aside from vent sexing, which an experienced person would have had to do when they were a day or two old, the next soonest way to tell will be their voices, which will probably start to change at around four to six weeks.

 

[disneyguy]

Okay, I guess I'll be waiting to hear some changes in their voices! They are both very vocal currently, which is fun.