Well the sooner they are handled the better for socialization purposes. I LOVE ducks but never was able to get any until a year ago. And I love Pekins so that is what I got. I got 3 ducklings that were almost 2 weeks old and from day 1 they hated me. After days and days of trying to hold them and no improvements I pretty much gave up with trying so hard and hoped that over a few months they would improve. They never did and I knew they would hate me forever so I found a new home for them on a huge ranch. I then got 2 more pekin ducklings that were 4 days old, a male and a female. The next day my husband was admitted to the hospital so the 8 days after we got the ducklings we pretty much lived at the hospital and I only saw the ducklings once a day so by the time we were home and settled in they were really skiddish and have been ever since and they are 8 months old now but are happy and breeding/laying. They will eat out of my hand and walk up to me but the second I approach them or try to pet them they run away quacking. Its funny though because if I have a plate or something they automatically know I have goodies for them and run over quacking but if I dont have a plate nothing. LOL they will eat out of my hand and the female lets me touch her a little but not the male at all.
They wont hatch there own eggs so I have my silkies sitting on them and Monday we got our first hatch ever! I found it while collecting chicken eggs, it was sitting under the chicken still and I could tell it was born in the last 12-24 hrs and it was still drying off. I grabbed it and brought it inside under a heat lamp and held it pretty much all day Monday the day it was born. We went and got it a friend from the feed store in case no others hatched and they are best friends. The new one we bought was 5 days old. We have handled them both everyday a lot since Monday and the one the hatched at our house LOVES us! It follows us everywhere, gives us kisses and crys everytime we put it back in the cage and wants back out to us but the one we bought that is a few days old hates us and no matter how much love and attention we give it still the same thing. It hasnt even been a week so I am not too worries about it but its amazing how much they bond with you when they are younger. So all in all I would say your best bet is to let your boys handle them as much as possible in the future and anybody else that wants to for they will need the attention. I dont know if you are supposed to handle them in the first 24 hrs so much but I did and there were no issues. There was another hatched this morning and I did the same thing. Neither of them seemed week or unhealthy they are both strong and active so Ive had no worries with handling them so much.
