Our new Duckie Diggs

[vlapinta]

Thanks to Scott from Ozark Bantams for his design. This is what my husband and I have been up to this weekend. We have some finishing touches to do. We are putting in 2 doors, one to the shelter, and one on the side. We ran out of hardware cloth so we still need to enclose the top. We are going to be adding a drain from the pool. Scott gets all the credit for this well thought out duck pen.

Vicki

 

[Hattiegun]

Looks AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mine duck run is just getting started , cant wait..

 

[Crazyland]

That looks great!
I have the ducks but not a house for them yet...

 

[Amiga]

beauty!

 

[vlapinta]

Our calls are two weeks old. Do you think we can put them in their new home during the day and take them out at night? It starts out at 50 degrees and warms up to @ 70 here in NJ on our coolest days. Some days are warmer. We can run a heat lamp in where their shelter is, just in case they are cold. We would definately bring them in before it gets dark at night. Or do you think we should wait a a little longer. we are just excited to get them in their new home. We know they are going to love it!

Vicki & Jaime

 

[Scott]

Vicki,

You and your husband did a great job on that duck pen. It looks great. I think your calls will be happy in there.

 

[vlapinta]

Thanks Scott and again thanks for the great plans!

Vicki

 

[vlapinta]

I am getting everything ready for when I can put the new duckies in their new home. I was thinking of putting them out during the day and bringing them in at night. I was going to keep a heat lamp in the shelter till they are fully feathered duting the day, just in case they get cold. It is @ 60 -70 degrees here in NJ depending on the day.

I need help deciding what to buy for water and for feed. I have a heavy crock I can use for the feed but I hope they don't poo in it. I don't want to have to keep dumping and wasting food. I think Scott had an idea about putting a bcucket from a chain so they can't get in the food. Would this work better, or do you think they will still climb in?

Now the water issue. I am going to have water in the pool with bricks so they can get out till they are older. I also want to give them drinking water, but I don't want to have to change the drinking water several times a day( if I can get away with it) I want to have enough water for them to be able to go 4-5 hours. Now I have the chick waterers with a quart mason jar but they manage to empty the water in less than an hour! I have three call ducks. I don't want them to be able to get in their drinking water. What do you suggest? Here are a few ideas I was tossing around. What do you think?

A sanitary, plastic baby pig waterer with a heavy-duty, linear polyethylene jar. Vacuum-type waterer is leakproof and rustproof. The easy-to-clean jar is transparent with a visible waterline. The waterer has a 5" opening for easy access. 5-1/2" W x 12-3/4" H x 9" D. Holds one gallon
Someone on here recommended it and It looks like it would work but will it be enough water for a day when they are adults?

Or should I get one of the larger poultry wateres? I was trying to avoid a bowl or tub because they will end up swimming in it and making a big mess and they will have access to the little pond in their pen. Any help would be appreciated.
Vicki

 

[Amiga]

Vicki,

Regarding the waterer, I like the looks of the picture. As far as knowing how long they will go, I am finding my runners difficult to predict. We went from a quart, to two quarts, to a gallon, and now have a three gallon waterer, which is my limit because full it weighs around 25 pounds - about what I can comfortably carry at my "advanced" age

Here is the trick: Since they were about six weeks old, and had started the bad habit of apparently splashing out every drop of the three gallons overnight (standing water in the brooder, oh yeah!

), I went with Storey's advice that they can do without water just fine for 8 to 10 hours. So, for about 5 to 8 hours, they don't have water or feed in the brooder, so I don't have to destroy a wetland every morning.

Now then. Some mornings, they go through a couple of gallons in an hour. Some mornings, there is still a gallon of water left after five hours (from the time I give them water in the morning to their morning brooder change). It depends. They seem to drink less when they are more settled, which is within 48 hours after spending an afternoon outdoors, where I can provide drinking water and swimming water.

I hope that pile of data helps you somehow. Perhaps one nugget is that after six weeks, running out of water is much less of a big deal than right now with your calls. I used to get so edgy if I had to leave the house for more than two hours. Now it is no big deal. If I leave them with three gallons, they will be fine for a few hours even if they splash it all out.

Last time they were at all consistent with water usage, they were getting about three hours on a gallon. They are runners, adult weight about 3.5 pounds, if that might help you make a guess.

 

[vlapinta]

Day 1 in their new pen

We put the ducklings in their new pen today to try it out. Our first problem was we didn't want to fill the pool too deep for them, so we only put a few inches in the pool. They couldn't get out on their own. They would just slide in, but getting out was not as easy. We put rocks and bricks to make stairs but they kept trying to get out on just one side where there were no bricks for a while, even with the rocks in the middle. We moved the rocks to where they were trying to get out, and two went up the rock stairs and out, success! The smallest one just stayed inthe pool peepping her head off so we tryed to teach her how to get out.
She finally figured it out once so we are hoping she will get it now.
It is 70 degrees out, a little cooler in the shade. We put a small peice of wood accross the top corner of the shelter so it can hold the clamp for the heat lamp. We notched out a small hole on the door and snaked the power cord through it. We have a power box on my fence for our pool. The next step was getting them in the shelter so they could see the heat lamp and get warmed up. They wanted nothing to do with the shelter so we opened the back door and offered them kale, which they love, through the door. This would make them have to go through the opening into the shelter. Success again!!
Our concerns are "do they know enough that when they are cold that they should go into the shelter under the heat lamp? We feel when they get out of the water it is a little cool for them and they should go into the shelter to warm up. We put their food in the shelter.

Can you tell we are nervous new "duckie moms" lol!

We are not keeping them out in the pen all night. We plan to bring them in at night. Do you think they will be Ok during the day? They are three weeks old now.

Jaime & Vicki