New to ducks

[Kathyb2]

I have had chickens for years. A week and a half ago, my daughter brought home 3 ducklings from tractor supply. Pretty sure one Pekin and 2 khaki campbells. Yesterday we tried putting them in water to let them swim. They totally freaked out and didn't want anything to do with it. Is this normal? The room was warm, the water was room temp.

We are in South Georgia. They don't seem to need as much heat as chicks do. At what age or temp can they go outside? We don't use a red light we have a brinsea ecoglow and they are not longer going under it.

Seriously, I believe you can watch them grow, amazing.

 

[Poultry parent]

Ducklings don't really start to produce the waterproofing oil until they're 8 weeks old, until then they might not and they might like swimming. It just depends on the duck. You can put them outside when it's warm out. There's not a super specific temp

 

[Vyctoria]

By freaking out, what do you mean exactly? I know mine loved the water from the very start and I was swimming them in the bathtub at a week old. They'd shoot around under the water like little torpedoes until they tired and then they'd start splashing around and bathing like normal.

 

[chickens really]

Hello....

If the water was too deep to stand in they possibly were just scared........Silly Ducklings....Keep your hand near the water and peep or quack to them while to splash the water a little to encourage them to enjoy the water.....The oil glad will get stimulated after the first bath and that will keep them water repellant ........

Have no worries...Everything is new to them...


Best wishes....

Cheers!

 

[Abraeri]

We are in Georgia as well and we got our ducklings in August. Before long they were panting and so we never put a heat lamp for them. We moved them out of our basement into a coop right next to our house when they were around 4 weeks old.

 

[Kathyb2]

They are so big. We have just three and they are in the same cage I can brood 15 chicks in. Not sure how old they are. Anyone have pics of 4 week old ducks. I really want to get them outside but I don't want to do it too soon.

 

[chickens really]

If your Ducklings are feathered and you have a Coop with bedding and a safe enclosure to lock them in, they can go out now......They will love it....


Good luck..

 

[Ducks4us]

Prob just scared if it was their first time.
I start mime at a couple days old and they love the water!!
Mine didnt need much heat either.
I brooded mine outside by the second week. And so they had a huge space and were able to get away from heat.
By 4 weeks they werent sleeping anywhere near the heat.
So took the heat out. I had 13'together tho.
I cant get photos to load i will try again later...
but they have their chest feathers in by 4 weeks

 

[Vyctoria]

This was at 4 weeks old, but it's not the best shot either. They had their chest feathers in at the time.

 

[Abraeri]

Here's our ducks at ~3 weeks:







In the background of the second picture you can see the bottom of the crate we used for their coop. We moved 'em out by 3 weeks because it was warm outside (and it was getting stinky inside ) As you can also tell in the second picture, they would jump into any water they could. They loved water from the very firs day, in fact.