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ChickDuckieLover83 said:
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
**April 2023

(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
**Started off with 15 chicks 1 rooster (received 18 total chicks). 1 rooster and 1 chick died 1st night. 2nd night 1 chick died. Went and bought 5 chicks (not sure of breed). Also got 4 duckies (not sure of breed).

(3) What breeds do you have?
**Mostly Wyandotes (hopefully spelling is right)

(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
**something to pass the time since I'm mostly at home. We love eggs as well. Now a days, eggs are way too expensive.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
**I like to read, spend time with family, watch my boys play Lacrosse with school, video games with hubby and boys.

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
** I work in the medical field, husband is police, we have a dog that 11 weeks old, his name is Mr.T and he's a Decker Rat Terrier.

(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community? :D
**I typed something in Google and this website was first on the list.
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Welcome to BYC!!
 
SilverBirds said:
The ducklings are no more than a week old.

There is a lot of debate about keeping ducks and chickens in the same pen. Many people don't because drakes can injure and kill hens while trying to mate with them. Ducks are also very messy and love making mud, while chickens prefer to be dry. I do keep my chickens and ducks together and have yet to have any major problems.

I prefer brooding chicks and ducklings separate because of the size difference and the mess ducklings make. If you do separate them but later decide you want to house them in the same quarters again, they can be integrated back together. Do your research and figure out what works best for you. I'd advice checking out the Learning Center and threads for information. Let us know if you need anything more.
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Thank you for that advice. I will talk it over with my husband and see what we can come up with. At the moment, they are warm in the garage. It's been too cold even now for May, and wet (we've had rain almost every day this week 🙄). I do change bedding every other day (I had issues with my water feeder 2xs). Finally found one that won't spill over. I had the ducklings in the sink with some water and they enjoyed that time. I did notice that one of the yellow ducklings won't stay up for long. Sometimes it (he/she 🤷🏻‍♀️🤔) looks like crawling towards food and water. I have read that it's normal bc they make themselves tired but as they get older, that changes. In the mean time, can I add something to the water for both ducklings and chicks? I got food that's used for both birds (apparently that's what they use at the tractor supply store.
 
ChickDuckieLover83 said:
I did notice that one of the yellow ducklings won't stay up for long. Sometimes it (he/she 🤷🏻‍♀️🤔) looks like crawling towards food and water. I have read that it's normal bc they make themselves tired but as they get older, that changes. In the mean time, can I add something to the water for both ducklings and chicks? I got food that's used for both birds (apparently that's what they use at the tractor supply store.
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Since the ducklings are showing signs of walking issues, I would add nutritional or brewers yeast to the food. The yeast provides niacin (or B3), which ducklings need a lot of in order to grow strong bones and legs. Chicks don't require as much niacin as ducklings do, so feed meant for chicks, or even feed meant for chicks and ducklings, isn't usually high in this vitamin.

You can buy yeast at Walmart, Amazon, and a few other stores or online. Just sprinkle it on top of the feed (usually 1tbsp per cup of feed). The chicks will be okay to eat it, too.
 
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