please tell me what to do with this duckling

[LearningToFly]

We were getting some chicks to add to our flock and decided impulsively to add a duck. The guy at the feed store told us to feed and brood her just like we do the chicks.

Well, it's two weeks later, and Blossom is about 5x the size of the chicks. It began to dawn on me that perhaps ducklings are different from chicks (please pardon my slowness, but I've had a lot of distractions lately) and started researching ducks.

Okay, y'all, I may be in over my head. The books and sites all say ducks are sooo much easier than chickens, then go into all these things we should and should not do. I am overwhelmed. I never went through all this to raise chickens.

One of the (many) things that concerns me is that the feed store guy said to feed Blossom just like we feed the chicks, so she's on medicated chick starter. Now I'm reading that she needs to be on duckling food for the niacin content, and that she can't have the medicated feed because it will kill her.

What do I do here? I'm not set up for separate duck housing. All the peeps are in my daughters' room in a wash tub. Plus, Blossom is bonded to the chicks and can't stand to be separated from them.

Will it truly be bad for her to eat what the chicks to for the next several weeks/months? And then to graduate to organic layer pellets when they reach that age? Because she will be housed with the chickens as well, so she'll have to live where they live and eat what they eat.

Please tell me the easiest thing to do to successfully keep this duck as a healthy and happy part of our flock.

As a note - the flock currently consists of three adult hens, and we plan to add Blossom and the three chicks when they have reached physical maturity.

 

[Emmalion]

Depending on where you live you might be able to get the ducky out in the coop now. I don't know what size coop you have but if it is big enough to fit a dog crate or fence off an area just for the chicks and duck you might (depending on your location and weather) be able to move them all in together. Just remember that you have to keep separated from the older chickens for a week or more and well really you want them to be the same size as the other chickens.

As for the feed it is fine. Some will say ya or nay on the medicated feed but its not like it used to be.
Easy way for niacin is to give them some extra vitamin water and fresh greens BTW they love sweet peas

 

[KansasKid]

emmalion beat me to it.

 

[Wifezilla]

Medicated feed USED to be bad for ducklings because it contained ingredients toxic to waterfowl. Those ingredients aren't in it anymore. If the only medication in the feed is Ampro, your duck should be fine. And yes, ducks grow freaky fast

 

[Emmalion]

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[LearningToFly]

Okay, thank you. The panic is starting to subside. I have them all on Nutreena medicated chick starter. I'll add some greens to Blossom's diet. We have some nice tender dandelion leaves that I can chop fine.

Do I need to do anything different with the heat lamp?

Where we are it's 50 and raining today, and still getting below freezing at night.

I was expecting to move the chicks outdoors in late May. They will be in a moving run during the day, and at night will be in a dog house. When they are big enough to not be hurt by the big hens, I'll introduce them to the roost box at night when Lucy, Ethel and Helen are sleeping. That's how I did my last introduction and it worked well.

I'd been planning to treat Blossom (now known temporarily as Ginormica) like the other chicks, except for adding a wading pool to the back yard for the summer.

 

[FarmrGirl]

You can certainly keep ducks and chickens together, mine all free-range together happily enough (though they have seperate housing). I wouldn't seperate the duckling from the chicks unless you see any glaring dangers... ducks are VERY social and shouldn't be raised all alone. I'm sure Blossom thinks she's a chicken at this point

Ducks are ground nesters while chickens will want to roost. When you move everyone out to the coop just be sure to provide a place for her to nest where the chickens won't poop all over her

and she'll settle into her spot for the night.

Ducklings don't need swimming water, baby chicks can very easily drown so it wouldn't be safe to put anything other than a chick drinker in the brooder. {edit: I almost forgot!} ducks need water deep enough to rinse their nostrils and eyes to keep them healthy. You can give her a little dish once a day to take a "spit bath" in for a few minutes. When Blossom is older and everyone is outside you can get her a small kiddie pool and she'll happily take to it then.

Don't worry about your little menagerie, they'll all do just fine!

 

[Duckles]

Most importantly, you should post some pictures of your "ducken" with all its siblings

Is she a Pekin? Those grow sooooo fast!

 

[FarmrGirl]

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Yes! We want to see pictures of the fuzzy little family

 

[LearningToFly]

I'd love to post photos. But you'll have to tell me how!

Blossom is a Pekin. Our chicks are a Buff Rock named Jeep; an Araucana named Chestnut; and a California White called Chicken Courageous!