Raising and caring for ducklings

[tncnwk12]

Oh, forgot to hop on here to tell everyone that my lil nugget flew the coop back in June :\ so she's out somewhere in the wild. I hope one day she raises some ducklings better than her mother tried.

 

[Lacrystol]

Oh, forgot to hop on here to tell everyone that my lil nugget flew the coop back in June :\ so she's out somewhere in the wild. I hope one day she raises some ducklings better than her mother tried.

OH NOOO lol...

 

[casportpony]

My mallard flew away, too. Don't be surprised if she comes back, some of the ones I raised would come around a few days each year for treats.

-Kathy

 

[wendychicklawyr]

Ok I put my 1 week old bsby ducks on shavings and they are trying to eat it omg should I keep them on it HELP

 

[Amiga]

You could put some old towels on top, or a softish plastic mesh (nothing they could pull apart and swallow.)

Sometimes they just mouth the shavings, mine did try to eat them so I stayed with old towels.

 

[wendychicklawyr]

They seemed to slow down on the picking at the shaving ..gonna keep my eye on them ..

 

[Lacrystol]

I wouldnt worry about it.

 

[wendychicklawyr]

Thanks guys. I think they stopped trying to eat it.

 

[ksandvig]

WOW lots of good info of course on here I am new to raising chickens & NOW I want to get a few ducks!! My hens haven't even started laying yet they are about 14 wks old and we love them to death
So my first step was to come here to learn about ducks what I've learned about my chickens!!
Just ordered up Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks on Amazon and found some 9 day old ducklings locally, but haven't purchased yet, need to do a lot more research hence the book

They will be living w/ my chickens, I have a 12'x17' covered run w/ 2 coops in it, also just made an attached outdoor run that is not covered for them to free range in so i think i am set up in that way.

Any other suggestions anyone can think of?

 

[Alice28]

WOW lots of good info of course on here I am new to raising chickens & NOW I want to get a few ducks!! My hens haven't even started laying yet they are about 14 wks old and we love them to death
So my first step was to come here to learn about ducks what I've learned about my chickens!!
Just ordered up Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks on Amazon and found some 9 day old ducklings locally, but haven't purchased yet, need to do a lot more research hence the book

They will be living w/ my chickens, I have a 12'x17' covered run w/ 2 coops in it, also just made an attached outdoor run that is not covered for them to free range in so i think i am set up in that way.

Any other suggestions anyone can think of?

Storeys Guide is great! I read and bookmarked pages and re read before we got are ducks! It's such a helpful book! Do you know what kind of ducks you are looking for? If you have a drake, you won't want it staying with the chickens when it's old enought to mate, it could kill the chickens if it mates with them. I know some people on here have chickens and ducks that do fine together and some have them separated. We just have ducks and I totally love them! We have two anconas. We use to have a muscovy who was are sweetest duck, but she turned out to be a he and around 3 1/2 months old started to get aggressive with my son, so he became a dinner. We ended up with a drake ancona to (only ended up with one female

) but he isn't aggressive at all. Story's guide will outline feeding at every age, I think te most important thing is as babies they need to be warm and always have food and water. And they are WAY messier then chickens! WAY! They love water and mud, but I personally like them more then chickens. They are very funny! Good luck! Post pictures when you get some.