New duck mommy 2021
Free Ranging
With that being said I start my ducklings in water at 3 days oldI have read where it works before but when the ducklings take to water the poor Momma Chicken sort of loses interest in them. I think she thinks they have gone off the deep end. Also she could not waterproof them like a Momma Duck can so deep water would be bad unless they were totally supervised.
Immediately they start to preen abc use the oil gland
Mine are under water diving by day 5 and oiled up
As they loose baby feathers and gain teen feathers they can get a bit wet and again bathing daily they fix it
I haven’t ever lost a duckling to drowning or soaking wet with no mom duck
Many think you can’t bath early but you can they don’t need mom to get oil