Pekin ducks

[aladore]

Hello, new to this hatched my eggs for the children in my daycare. We all fell in love with these adorable babies. My son is building outside pen and house for them. Can u tell me how old should they be before I let them go outside. I have been researching on the web , but getting too many different times. Thanks

 

[Ducks4us]

Welcome
Outside without any heat i would say not till they are around 4 weeks old. Usually by this age they are staying far away from the heat lamp.
Its more dependant on where you live/ temperatues.
And what kind of housing they will have for cooler night temps.
My ducklings are around 2 weeks old and they are out in the coop but with heat lamps. Its only around 50'degrees during the day right now and 30degrees at night. Its 78-80 under one lamp and they stay on the outside edges where its 70-73 . So i slowly raise the heat a tiny bit when i notice they are staying further away.
So i will wait till they are prob 4-ish weeks old till i take out the heat all the way
My coop is completley enclosed for night time. So they can be locked up in a draft free area. And i have 13 ducklings . So i know they will keep each other warm by then as well.
How many do you have and how old are they?

 

[aladore]

Olive in newyork. We only had four eggs that hatched. One of my cuties Mr. Quaker is three weeks old. The other three are only 4 days old. Will they all be able to get along, even though Mr quakers is older then the others? Also having a debate with my son I said they need to be locked in there outside house when they do go out at night. . he said they don't have to be only put in there own. What should we do?

 

[Ducks4us]

It will take a bit of introductions and observing how the older duckling does. I may wait till the littles are closer to a week or more that way they are a little more coordinated. 3 week old pekins are pretty big already. And could really hurt a tiny one if they wanted. So it may take some time.
And yes ducks wont want to go in at night in my experience. I had to start training them early, thankfully they are pretty easy to herd in at night. Or get them inside with some treats. For safety they need locked in a secure shelter. With good ventilation. Otherwise they will be very vulerable to attack. Since they cant fly or get away.

 

[aladore]

Thank u for the great advice. Can you also give me some advice about keeping rodents away from the pen. This is my biggest worry. I can't stand rodents. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge

 

[Ducks4us]

We just have the bottom of the coop wrapped in hardware cloth.. tiny wire. And everywhere there is ventilation at the top is also covered in tiny hardware cloth. This keeps out weasels/ raccoons etc.../ But the mice still get in. They can dig under and crawl through everything.
We set mouse traps at night when everyone is locked up. And pick them up before anyone comes out in the morning. But ducks will eat mice so dont put out poison or anything like that for the mice. ..... i dont think mice can ever be kept out completely.. they seem to be able to get into everything. I hate them too lol.

 

[aladore]

Thank you for all your help. Have a great weekend.