btrask
Chirping
First thank you all for the great advice. We are just starting out duck adventure (Three Magpies) and BYC has been the best source of information. I wanted to post up our brooder setup just to help out anyone else. We have zero experience with this so lots of research and more learning as we go!
Fresh from the farm store.
Obligatory cute ducks outside the first time photo.
Location: We started in the garage. Close to feed, bedding, and ample room. Plus we didnt know what the smell/sound would be like. After the first couple hours we found the heat lamp (250w, red) could only heat about 20*F above ambient. Not hot enough for a couple day old ducklings. We ended up setting it in our laundry room.
Duck HVAC: We (Ok maybe I) took the temp thing pretty seriously and attacked it from a technical point of view. I picked up a $30 wireless thermometer and stuck it in the brooder via velcro. I also attached a secondary sensor that hooks up to our smarthome setup. They sound redundant but there is a method to my madness. The wireless thermometer has a quicker sampling rate (Every 30 seconds or so) which helps me get a quicker handle on temp. The smarthome sensor only senses every 30 minutes but allows me to access to via smart phone and it logs historical data so I can go back and see a temp trend. Unnecessary and nerdy, but it was fun and I had it laying around. For the heat lamp I installed a bike hook in our ceiling, then ran a spare ratchet strap down and to the heat lamp. This allows me to ratchet up and down to control the temp.
Little chilly 'by the book' but the ducks seem to thrive right now in it. Also dosnt help I keep going in and out of the garage right now... Also the humidity is an error. When the ducks decide to get super playful with the water it splashes everywhere and throws off the values.
Here is what I get reported to my phone. Pretty nifty!
Bike hook, ratchet strap.
Container: We were in luck, we had two 27 gallon plastic tubs from Costco just hanging out from a past project. The idea behind these are they should be big enough, sturdy, we had two, and easy to clean. We always have one that is clean/sanitized on hand so when it is time to change the brooder nightly they get transferred to the next tub that looks just like the other.
Tower feeder and waterer, overhead 250w red heat lamp, wireless temp sensor.
Bedding: Simple pine shavings in the large bale from the farm store has been working great. I am just now halfway through my first bale at about 3.5 weeks with daily changes and adding extra whenever it gets soppy.
Equipment we started with: I dont know how many threads, blogs, and youtube videos I watched trying to get the best setup in my brain. We started with a $25 'Poultry starter kit' from our local farm store since we were just starting out. It came with a waterer, tower feeder, trough feeder, and 250w red heat lamp. Worth the money since the heat lamp alone is $12. However, it simple only lasted a couple days before we started mixing and matching parts.
Good image showing most of our equipment. The light position was temporary as was the location (Garage).
Water Saga: We started with the kit combined and it worked for a couple days. We threw a ceramic plate under it to catch some water. The tower waterer was too shallow and they were cranking through the water supply. We swapped it within a couple days for the small blue trough feeder that came with. This worked but they got water everywhere. So we put a pan under it topped with two cooling racks. As they got bigger, we filled the water once an hour and they started to get roudy and knock it around. The end solution; I cut two duck size head holes in a 1 gallon milk jug and bungee corded it to the tub. Easy filling, everyone can get their heads in, larger water reservoir, and no longer anymore knocked over containers! To this day this is been working great.
Here is how it is set up today. ~3" deep baking dish, cooling racks over top, with a bungee corded home made waterer.
Feeding: We picked up the Purina Flock Raiser crumbles. This hits the 20% protein guideline, non-medicated, but needs some more niacin. Due to the times of not going out much I opted to Amazon some brewers yeast and sprinkle that on top of their food. About a tablespoon per cup. We were feeding in the tower feeder but it was too hard to clean and the bills were getting large. We switched it out for the small blue trough feeder which worked for a good week. After they started eating much more, I upgraded to a larger galvanized trough feeder. This has stood up well, heavy enough, large enough, and effective. Sometimes I throw a ramekin of sand after a fun day out foraging or getting treats, but they mostly just have feed.
What we picked up from the local farm store. Yeah 50lb at a time starting out, we were committed!
Big Brother: I had a spare security camera laying around and though, what the heck? We already monitor their temp remotely why not take a look! So I hooked it up and started a YouTube LiveStream to share with our family too.
Just for the humans you know.
Duckling cam in action!
Fresh from the farm store.
Obligatory cute ducks outside the first time photo.
Location: We started in the garage. Close to feed, bedding, and ample room. Plus we didnt know what the smell/sound would be like. After the first couple hours we found the heat lamp (250w, red) could only heat about 20*F above ambient. Not hot enough for a couple day old ducklings. We ended up setting it in our laundry room.
Duck HVAC: We (Ok maybe I) took the temp thing pretty seriously and attacked it from a technical point of view. I picked up a $30 wireless thermometer and stuck it in the brooder via velcro. I also attached a secondary sensor that hooks up to our smarthome setup. They sound redundant but there is a method to my madness. The wireless thermometer has a quicker sampling rate (Every 30 seconds or so) which helps me get a quicker handle on temp. The smarthome sensor only senses every 30 minutes but allows me to access to via smart phone and it logs historical data so I can go back and see a temp trend. Unnecessary and nerdy, but it was fun and I had it laying around. For the heat lamp I installed a bike hook in our ceiling, then ran a spare ratchet strap down and to the heat lamp. This allows me to ratchet up and down to control the temp.
Little chilly 'by the book' but the ducks seem to thrive right now in it. Also dosnt help I keep going in and out of the garage right now... Also the humidity is an error. When the ducks decide to get super playful with the water it splashes everywhere and throws off the values.
Here is what I get reported to my phone. Pretty nifty!
Bike hook, ratchet strap.
Container: We were in luck, we had two 27 gallon plastic tubs from Costco just hanging out from a past project. The idea behind these are they should be big enough, sturdy, we had two, and easy to clean. We always have one that is clean/sanitized on hand so when it is time to change the brooder nightly they get transferred to the next tub that looks just like the other.
Tower feeder and waterer, overhead 250w red heat lamp, wireless temp sensor.
Bedding: Simple pine shavings in the large bale from the farm store has been working great. I am just now halfway through my first bale at about 3.5 weeks with daily changes and adding extra whenever it gets soppy.
Equipment we started with: I dont know how many threads, blogs, and youtube videos I watched trying to get the best setup in my brain. We started with a $25 'Poultry starter kit' from our local farm store since we were just starting out. It came with a waterer, tower feeder, trough feeder, and 250w red heat lamp. Worth the money since the heat lamp alone is $12. However, it simple only lasted a couple days before we started mixing and matching parts.
Good image showing most of our equipment. The light position was temporary as was the location (Garage).
Water Saga: We started with the kit combined and it worked for a couple days. We threw a ceramic plate under it to catch some water. The tower waterer was too shallow and they were cranking through the water supply. We swapped it within a couple days for the small blue trough feeder that came with. This worked but they got water everywhere. So we put a pan under it topped with two cooling racks. As they got bigger, we filled the water once an hour and they started to get roudy and knock it around. The end solution; I cut two duck size head holes in a 1 gallon milk jug and bungee corded it to the tub. Easy filling, everyone can get their heads in, larger water reservoir, and no longer anymore knocked over containers! To this day this is been working great.
Here is how it is set up today. ~3" deep baking dish, cooling racks over top, with a bungee corded home made waterer.
Feeding: We picked up the Purina Flock Raiser crumbles. This hits the 20% protein guideline, non-medicated, but needs some more niacin. Due to the times of not going out much I opted to Amazon some brewers yeast and sprinkle that on top of their food. About a tablespoon per cup. We were feeding in the tower feeder but it was too hard to clean and the bills were getting large. We switched it out for the small blue trough feeder which worked for a good week. After they started eating much more, I upgraded to a larger galvanized trough feeder. This has stood up well, heavy enough, large enough, and effective. Sometimes I throw a ramekin of sand after a fun day out foraging or getting treats, but they mostly just have feed.
What we picked up from the local farm store. Yeah 50lb at a time starting out, we were committed!
Big Brother: I had a spare security camera laying around and though, what the heck? We already monitor their temp remotely why not take a look! So I hooked it up and started a YouTube LiveStream to share with our family too.
Just for the humans you know.
Duckling cam in action!
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