one duckling???? Need some help....

[DUCKGIRL89]

I have nine duck eggs in my bator. And my mom said that I can keep ONE duckling. Is it too curle to keep ONE duckling?

 

[scratch'n'peck]

You could tell her that one duckling will be a lot more noisy in the brooder than two ducklings who have each other. My guess is that mom doesn't want to add too many ducks to the grown ones you already have.

 

[FarmrGirl]

Quote:
Oh wow... if you have no other baby chicks or ducks that is SUPER cruel. If you can't convince her to let you keep 2, I would sell all the ducks.

That sounds harsh but imagine the poor duckling

. If you spend A LOT (read: 12 hours) with it every day until you can introduce it to your flock and put a mirror in the brooder it won't be lonely but will imprint on you. Then it may become very aggressive as an adult because it will try to vie for dominance like it would with other ducks - that may mean pecking or flogging you with it's wings. Not a good situation.

 

[jdywntr]

Quote:
Oh wow... if you have no other baby chicks or ducks that is SUPER cruel. If you can't convince her to let you keep 2, I would sell all the ducks.

That sounds harsh but imagine the poor duckling

. If you spend A LOT (read: 12 hours) with it every day until you can introduce it to your flock and put a mirror in the brooder it won't be lonely but will imprint on you. Then it may become very aggressive as an adult because it will try to vie for dominance like it would with other ducks - that may mean pecking or flogging you with it's wings. Not a good situation.

X2
Keep two or sell them all.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

I know you love your ducks and having ducks in general, with an interest in learning more about them too. However, have you thought about NOT incubating the eggs since you seem to want pure bred ducks, and possiblly a different breed? It makes more sense to not hatch ducklings that there is no long term plan for. I would suggest slowing down on the adding more and more until you know what you really want/breed you are most interested in. This way you aren't having to feed, house and worry about various ages of ducks. Find new homes for ducks you can't keep or don't want that particular breed. I would have to say that just because there ARE eggs and they could be incubated, doesn't dictate that they have to be incubated. Collect the eggs, use them in baking and cooking, maybe find someone to share the eggs with locally for eatting and be happy with the ducks you have.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
x2

 

[1234duck]

I KINDA disagree... I started with four ducks and ended up incubating some eggs, finally i had only 1 egg hatch and of course i kept and named it "Lucky Ducky". Lucky is a male & now 7 months old. He stayed in the house till he was 11 weeks old but played outside during the day. he was and still is very spoiled and got lots of attention he wasnt introduced to the others till he was 11 weeks which is when he started sharing living space. i never thought of it being cruel b/c he ALWAYS had attention and yes probably b/c he was the 1st and only duckling hatched. i dont have him penned with others to this day b/c of the mating thing going on and they were getting kinda mean to each other(fighting) but Lucky is penned in free ranging area next to my 2 other big babies who are about 15 weeks old. (Jack & Jill). ~Soooo... i wouldn't say it was down right cruel to only have 1 duckling(if had your attention MOST of the time) But in reality, if your gonna have 1 you may as well have the 2 so they can keep each other company its not really much more work to have the 2. And yes they will always have a play mate when your not there. but IMO you should be there to give attention to them all the time or have a 2nd duckling. }}}there was ALWAYS somebody in our house playing and talking to Lucky Ducky....

we love him. Good luck with your ducky/duckies, ~Julie~

 

[Oregon Blues]

One duckling will survive just fine. While it is not ideal, neither is it cruel to raise a singleton.

You do realize that you are counting your ducklings before they hatch?

I agree that if those are cross bred ducks that you might consider selling all of them because you are wanting to build a flock of nice purebred WH. Don't fill up the available spaces in your flock with mutts if you intend to raise purebreds. Think about selling them all and putting the money into a piggy bank to save for a box of show quality WH from Holderread next spring.

If those are purebred shipped eggs, then perhaps you could give up some of your non-WH adults in order to keep more ducklings and keep your flock at the same number of birds. Moms will usually listen to a reasonable compromise offer.

 

[1234duck]

YIKES...... I just read how many duckies you have. That's VERY time consuming to take care of each the proper way. IMO you really might want to re think adding more till you find homes for the others. I make sure there are homes before i try incubating. My local pet store takes all my ducklings and finds good homes for all of them. I now have 7 ducks and takes me a good portion of the day(each day) to tend to my ducks..... feed, fresh water to drink and fresh swim water EVERYDAY. and clean up/spray with water their poop everyday so theres no smelly mess for them to lay or walk in and add some fresh hay as needed.

X3 with FLChickens. ~Julie~

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
You are right, it is VERY time consuming. My girls hatched about 150 ducklings this year and it almost killed me. It was way too much for me to handle but I did it but NEVER again. I literally spent hundreds of hours caring for them beginning at 6:00 AM every morning and AFTER getting off from work at 5:30 PM and not ending the animal chores until 9:00 PM and sometimes later EVERY night. It's a part time job. There are NO holidays or days off. I will never make that mistake again EVER.

I think 1 duckling would be good to have.

My lesson learned - NO MORE DUCKS EGGS WILL BE HATCHED for the next 5 years.