Raising ducklings without a heat lamp

[LearninMyFlock]

Last year I used a woolly hen and hot water bottle. With your temps you might be able to get away with just a woolly hen as long as you use the right materials and you start them off with it right away.

Can you tell where to find a woolly hen or how to make one? Thanks

 

[Cayuga momma]

I used a box. Others have used 5 gallon buckets cut in half(long ways).
You need a good material inside the box that helps hold in heat like wool.
Think of the box as a mother hen and the material as her feathers. Once the ducklings are inside their body heat together will stay inside and keep them warm.
You will also need a thermometer that you can regulate heat. I will upload pictures as soon as I can, but I'm headed to take my son to see the new avengers movie.
I will try to get back to you tonight with pictures and everything I used to put it together.

 

[casportpony]

I use a brooder plate, but lots of people make caves out of heating pads. This is one that @aart did:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/pseudo-brooder-heater-plate.67729/

I like the one that @WannaBeHillBilly did too.

 

[Cayuga momma]

So I'm sitting here waiting for the movie to start and I found my old post

Spoiler: Woolly hen

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...e-heavy-update.956958/page-1097#post-19910376

that has pics of the one I did for my chicks last year. It's similar to the one I used for ducks, just smaller.
I will get more info for you tonight with more pics.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I've used big Ohio brooders with both heat lamps and ceramic emitters and used those 2 heat sources alone. I use heat plates almost exclusively now.
In Missouri weather, I wouldn't try to get away without heat for ducklings till they were 3 or 4 weeks old.
I'm in Missouri too and it got down to 38F last night and that would be too cold for them.

 

[Isaac 0]

How old are they? - I kicked my ducklings out into a house outside at the age of four weeks in March, but they had an infrared lamp and a heat pad. I lost a two month old duck last year in August (!) during a "cold snap" down into the low 50's.

Just curious you lost one duck to 50 f weather that was two months old?I could be wrong but that seems very unlikely to me.I have had ducklings out in 45 degree weather that were much younger .

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Just curious you lost one duck to 50 f weather that was two months old?I could be wrong but that seems very unlikely to me.I have had ducklings out in 45 degree weather that were much younger .

I did! Below is a picture of the gang of six Friday afternoon before disaster struck:

You see the duckling in the back with the eyes closed? That was "Fieps" our smallest duckling. She was the cheekiest of them all, but struggled all the time and did not grow as fast as the others. Friday night temperatures dropped into the low 40's and on Saturday morning she looked exhausted and tired. Temperatures stayed in the 40's the whole day and in the evening she could no longer keep up with the larger ones and was peeping desperately. We took her in Saturday night but it was too late and she died Sunday morning. Hypothermia is a sneaky duckling killer!

 

[northernlivie]

I have raised all my ducklings without heat lamps. I keep them in a laundry basket near the woodstove and graduate them to a soft sided dog play pen. When they are 8wks old I then put them outside into the duck house and pen for the day and inside the duck house at night. Then when they are fully feathered and large enough they can join the flock on the pond. I start in April and put them out usually around end of May/beginning of June. It is very cold here mind you. May long weekend we get snow alot of the time.
Depending on the ducklings I have had to graduate them sooner from their laundry basket home. I came home from work one year to be greeted by my ducklings in the kitchen. They happily ate all the veggie seedlings I was growing that were within jumping range! It was duck-magedon!
Here are two ducklings, a Rouen "Ruby" and a Black Swedish "Pips". I adopted them both from a critter show. Pips was burned by the breeder's heat lamp set up and no one wanted her, so I took her home!
As you can see Ruby and Pips have their belly feathers and their wing feathers in the picture with the snow. That is May 29th 2016!
I also raised a male muscovy, seen snuggling on my sweater over this past winter. He was born in September and no one wanted him so I adopted him. He had to stay in my house until -40C passed in Feb this year. There he is looking like a stunner after his bath in my kitchen. In winter we most certainly must use heat lamps here but all the ducks are mature by the time winter hits. I have just never been able to bring myself to keep ducklings out in the duck shed for whatever reason.

 

[Roo5]

Oml,this is true.I once had a duckling who was sick (Niacin definacy ),and I too her to swim,

I did! Below is a picture of the gang of six Friday afternoon before disaster struck:
View attachment 1755912
You see the duckling in the back with the eyes closed? That was "Fieps" our smallest duckling. She was the cheekiest of them all, but struggled all the time and did not grow as fast as the others. Friday night temperatures dropped into the low 40's and on Saturday morning she looked exhausted and tired. Temperatures stayed in the 40's the whole day and in the evening she could no longer keep up with the larger ones and was peeping desperately. We took her in Saturday night but it was too late and she died Sunday morning. Hypothermia is a sneaky duckling killer!

it was warm outside(probably seventies) (based off all the ducklings I figured they were fine).The bird had started swimming and I left it there to go fiddle and figured I come back and I can back the duck was freezing, guess you live and learn.

 

[Cayuga momma]

I found the old thread I used to create my woolly hen. A lot of good info in here

Spoiler: Woolly hen

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-wool-hen-creating-one-today.1133855/page-3#post-17685287