Why no "Basic Duckling Care" in the stickies?

[chicknfun]

You all are Quacking me up!!

 

[tadpole98]

You all are Quacking me up!!

QOL!

 

[chicknfun]

Quote:

I love this forum!!!

 

[chicknfun]

I went to the stickies page-
Basics there now!!
Thanks! Wow that was quick!

 

[Roark]

I found plenty about rearin' new hatchlings from others, but little on what to do when you're raising your own with their mom. We have two mallard drakes and a single female (yeah I know it's not the suggested ratio, but that's what my wife brought home from TSC). They grew up together and momma duck just hatched out all twelve of the eggs she's been settin' on last night in the middle of the tornado weather. Too cute doesn't even begin to cover it. They're all in a straw nest in the corner of our original chicken tractor that the ducks appropriated from our chickens. The side with the straw nest has a 1/2"x1/2" hardware clothe floor, also with a thin layer of straw on it, and as of this morning a light layer of pine shavings as well. 3/4 of the chicken tractor/duck house sits right on fresh grass so everybody has a safe place to forage when they're ready (whenever that might be ?). Thought we'd wait a day before lettin' them hit the yard, supposing that they even want to, and the rest of the tractor is also gonna get an extra layer of 1/2" wire as a snake guard.

We turned the guys out for the day and closed up the tractor for the time being with mom and the kids inside (usually everybody free ranges all day and gets locked up at night).

There's a small Mason jar waterer sitting near the nest and I'm on my way out to pick up some feed & niacin or brewer's yeast, but other than warnings about letting adults swim with the ducklings and maybe drowning them, I've not found much more that would directly apply to the kids and mom co-habitating with dad(s). We wanted the mallard for her mothering traits (wanna raise some better egg layers later), but we're not sure what to do with the guys til the kids feather out. Sorry if this should be a separate post but I thought any replies might also be helpful to the OP.
Any suggestions and/or input would be greatly appreciated as this post is about the 100th page I've searched and read already this mornin'.
Welp, gotta get to the feed store, check in later.

And BTW... BYC rocks! Folks here have talked me through some troubling situations with great success. Now I just need to find a Backyard Cow and Pig forum.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I found plenty about rearin' new hatchlings from others, but little on what to do when you're raising your own with their mom. We have two mallard drakes and a single female (yeah I know it's not the suggested ratio, but that's what my wife brought home from TSC). They grew up together and momma duck just hatched out all twelve of the eggs she's been settin' on last night in the middle of the tornado weather. Too cute doesn't even begin to cover it. They're all in a straw nest in the corner of our original chicken tractor that the ducks appropriated from our chickens. The side with the straw nest has a 1/2"x1/2" hardware clothe floor, also with a thin layer of straw on it, and as of this morning a light layer of pine shavings as well. 3/4 of the chicken tractor/duck house sits right on fresh grass so everybody has a safe place to forage when they're ready (whenever that might be ?). Thought we'd wait a day before lettin' them hit the yard, supposing that they even want to, and the rest of the tractor is also gonna get an extra layer of 1/2" wire as a snake guard.

We turned the guys out for the day and closed up the tractor for the time being with mom and the kids inside (usually everybody free ranges all day and gets locked up at night).

There's a small Mason jar waterer sitting near the nest and I'm on my way out to pick up some feed & niacin or brewer's yeast, but other than warnings about letting adults swim with the ducklings and maybe drowning them, I've not found much more that would directly apply to the kids and mom co-habitating with dad(s). We wanted the mallard for her mothering traits (wanna raise some better egg layers later), but we're not sure what to do with the guys til the kids feather out. Sorry if this should be a separate post but I thought any replies might also be helpful to the OP.
Any suggestions and/or input would be greatly appreciated as this post is about the 100th page I've searched and read already this mornin'.
Welp, gotta get to the feed store, check in later.

And BTW... BYC rocks! Folks here have talked me through some troubling situations with great success. Now I just need to find a Backyard Cow and Pig forum.

Well they do have BYHerds. lol Congrats on your new lil ones. I can only speak from my experience since I have only Muscovy's I don't let mama and ducklings around my big drakes till they are 3 weeks old. Mainly because sometimes drakes are tolerant of ducklings sometimes not and I just finished reading about a drake killing a newly hatched duckling on here this morning. So I would rather be safe than sorry, I have 3 drakes and a gander in this mix. So not knowing how your drakes are I would err on the side of caution especially since you have 2 drakes. Sounds like you have their quarters safely secured. Just sit back and enjoy watching mama and ducklings it is a very enjoyable part of this time of year. Hopefully the more your drakes see and hear the lil ones as they grow they will get use to them and by the time they are big enough to be with them they will be willing to accept them into the flock. P>S someone who has Mallards may have had a totally different experience and hopefully you'll hear from them, please post pics when you get a chance.

 

[Roark]

It's a little hard to tell but there really are a dozen babies under and around momma. I didn't believe it 'til she got off of them to grab something to eat (and we of course were not prepared with a camera). Put the new food and niacin laced water in a short while ago along with a mix of finely chopped boiled egg with dandelion greens and so far so good. Weird weather here has it dropping to the low 60's suddenly so we put a tarp over the open screened portions of the pen above where these pictures illustrate. The two drakes were circling the pen and quacking up a storm once they were evicted and the door closed behind them. We set another food and water container outside but nearby for them but they still kept up. Finally we opened the door and they each took a turn sticking their head in the door. It was pretty funny since as they looked inside they would each shut up and turn and walk away, as if to say "okay... just checkin' to make sure everybody's alright". After that we closed the door again and they stayed quiet.

I have several heat lamps from our first chick brooding last year and I was thinking of maybe sticking one in overhead just as a precaution with this strange after tornado damp chill. Everybody seems fine but we like to worry. I can get the lamp situated probably about three feet overhead if necessary but I also don't wanna stress out mom (doesn't take much to get her quackin').
Any ideas on how long it takes before the kids start leaving the nest to find food and water? We've seen mom dash off for a few seconds respite, but none of the ducklings has ventured out of their straw bowl as yet. Not in the pictures but the food and water is about a foot from them just beyond the picture foregrounds.