Pekin Duck Club!

[barbara134]

Are babies are getting so big the turn 8 weeks in 2 days and we finally know the sex we have 5 females and 1 male my son has name our male already who's name is now Levi the females he is still working on naming them. Did find out the hard way today that all 6 of them love to play in the mud which is funny as can be. I'm still having trouble uploading pictures on here but I will try again later so everyone can see big they have gotten. We just love them so much

 

[Peekin In]

The Crazy Gang turned 8 weeks today, wondering when I should start feeding them duck pellets instead of crumble also how long do you continue giving them brewers yeast ?

 

[AxolotlLove]

The Crazy Gang turned 8 weeks today,  wondering when I should start feeding them duck pellets instead of crumble also how long do you continue giving them brewers yeast ?

You can start feeding them pellets now or next week. I'd wait until 9 weeks.

 

[MandyJ]

Help/ advice on duck housing plz..I have search on site and then posted a couple of times on different threads, but haven't found what I need and haven't had replies so I'm posting here hoping someone will actually see and answer me..
I am recently back into chickens and also have ducks, guineas and turkeys. Ihave a LOT of chickens..1 adult pekin female, and 8 other younger, but nearly grown ducks. I have my ducks in a chicken tractor but let them out each morning into my very large yard w woods and they r happy as can be...I am planning a very large coop for my chickens made w pallets in very near future. I am going to try deep litter method but have read that this doesn't work very well if u let the ducks into this picture..so, my questions are: what specifically is the best way or plan to have if I make a co-op for the ducks on their own..what do they need for a good home to sleep in and what should I do for cleaning plan?..they will pretty much just b sleeping in it and free range during theI day, the messy waste issues are my concern..is the best plan to clean it out constantly..meaning scoop out coop, or what? What do they actually need for housing v.s. chickens if I shouldn't keep them together BC of litter method?Incidentally, if I could keep all in one coop and use deep litter, that would b the best for me..no need for any advice not to keep together for other issues..a lot have said don't keep w chix for numerous other issues, but im noticing that many of the suggestions in other posts make it amazing that so many of the old farmers ever raised anything at all..lol....never feed corn ,etc....tho I don't feed anything but all flock..which, as with other "modern" foods, is mostly corn anyway..lol. But I digress.. Anyway, any help is appreciated..

This is my duck coop. It is just a dog chain link enclosure up off the ground. You will notice they use a dog crate for their "get out of the bad weather" place. Mostly they bed down on the floor. We put the 2' plywood sides on it to give them some "privacy" LOL. But they do seem to be calmer with the boards up. I put hay in it for them to bed down on the boards and just rake it out every few days. Take a spray hose to it about once a week.

Mine are free ranging as well, only stay in this enclosure at night.

 

[Amiga]

The Crazy Gang turned 8 weeks today, wondering when I should start feeding them duck pellets instead of crumble also how long do you continue giving them brewers yeast ?

I followed Storey's Guide and began switching them to grower between 2 and 3 weeks. I mixed the feeds together, each day a little less starter and a little more grower.

 

[Amiga]

This is my duck coop. It is just a dog chain link enclosure up off the ground. You will notice they use a dog crate for their "get out of the bad weather" place. Mostly they bed down on the floor. We put the 2' plywood sides on it to give them some "privacy" LOL. But they do seem to be calmer with the boards up. I put hay in it for them to bed down on the boards and just rake it out every few days. Take a spray hose to it about once a week.

Mine are free ranging as well, only stay in this enclosure at night.

Just because I have seen some problems with chain link only....raccoons can reach in and grab and pull parts of a duck out through the chain link... did I miss how you are protecting them? Maybe there are not raccoons where you are - please forgive my ignorance or memory failure....

 

[barbara134]

finally got a picture of our babies to upload our 5 female and our levi they sure do love the hose

 

[MandyJ]

Just because I have seen some problems with chain link only....raccoons can reach in and grab and pull parts of a duck out through the chain link... did I miss how you are protecting them? Maybe there are not raccoons where you are - please forgive my ignorance or memory failure....

No, we have coons here in Texas. We have seen them on the game camera we have out by the enclosure. There is plywood on 3 sides of the enclosure (it is painted blue) it goes up about 2.5 feet. The ducks must know that they shouldn't be near the front portion of the chain link they don't sleep near the chain link. They sleep on hay about a foot away from the chain link. The tops (2 of them) are tarps help down tightly with bungee cords. If an opossum or coon decided to chew through that they could get to the birds but so far none have tried. I have had this cage for the ducks over a year now. I have found a snake in the enclosure but he didn't last long. I had my trusty hoe! LOL

We put the enclosure up on the platform because even though we had buried chicken wire around the bottom of the cage coons and opossums were still digging in. We had the wire wired to the chain link about 2 feet up the side of the chain link going down under the wall of the enclosure and then out 2 feet. They were still digging in. We found 2 opossums in the enclosure with the ducks. Hence the wooden platform. Since we have had this up (for about 6 months) the only varmit that I have had in there is the one snake.

Good luck!

 

[altchick]

Actually it may not be a pekin, could be white layer or buff duckling. Those are all yellow ducklings.

What is the difference between the three???

 

[AxolotlLove]

What is the difference between the three???

(Pictures not mine)
Buff:

White Layer

Pekin

(My picture)
But the most common is pekin so you may have that, buff is also possible, WL aren't very common as pets and usually aren't sold in stores.