Ducklings - your experience please.

I've got two ducks sitting on eggs now. Soonish they will start hatching and I am going to have to start managing them i guess. I've just read the section in the raisiing ducks books. It looks pretty involved.

I figure i will have to
1. Build a special house to house the ducks and their offspring separately to keep them secure from predators and also from the other grown up ducks and chickens.

Will i have to keep these two ducks and their ducklings apart too?

2. Buy special food including niacin.

3. Organise all sorts of special feed trays and watering trays and things.

Please tell me all your tips and strategies that are good and easy. I do want to keep the mothers involved as much as possible as i think that will minimise my effort and keep them all happier too.

When they start hatching, can i move the whole nest all at once as I am afraid if i leave one of htem where it is, predators might move in fairly quickly. I'm thinking say snakes and maybe white tail rats.

 

what sort of ducks - some can be left more or less to their own devices

muscovy drakes will kill off most predators - I had one that killed a fox

 

They are muscovies.

what about snakes.

 

I had one that loved to kill his ducklings...till I got really mad and cut his head off with a cane knife.

Snakes ..well unless you have a very secure pen with 10 mm mesh (the heavy guage ,aviary style ,square stuff is the best by far.)then you are going to lose both adults and babies as well...larger amethystine pythons will push a hole through shadecloth unfortunately. So will white tailed rats..
Even if you just make a small snakeproof /ratproof area to lock them up at night it saves the heartache of losing your precious pets.
Better sooner than later.

Scott

 

Our Duck Experience

Hi sunburn,
As you've read elsewhere, we have just been blessed with a clutch of 18 ducklings hatching

We have previously had Appleyards and they were noisy ducks so found their way under the knife
Back then we also had one muscovy, and from our experience with her, we decided this time around we would stick to muscovys, as they are a "quiet" breed (relatively)
We suspect we got the ducklings at about 2 months of age, in March this year, and in September she started laying some eggs (19 or so in total), so as this was her first lot, we decided to let her "clutch"
She started "sitting" on them about the beginning of October, and they hatched about the 3rd Nov, so they are about 3 days old now
I have separated the Drake into a side pen (just some mesh/bamboo sectioning off my potting bench area)
The only problem really that we have had is, when letting the Drake have the yard to browse in, while she was on the eggs, he would get very defensive?/randy? (LOL) and chase my partner kaety around nipping at her (he also did this to my daughter once after the ducklings hatched and she went out without me)
I separated him, because previous experience with the Appleyards showed they tend to trample the ducklings. So wanted to avoid that.
I have decided I should be bloggin this experience (well the whole permaculture thing to) so will be doing a blog site with photos etc from the last 2 years worth of yard work
until then some photos from today are here

 

I'll have a look at hte blog in a minute and yes its a good idea to blog your experience, especially with detail that others may find helpful.

Your ducklings are totally gorgeous. How can you not want to spend 24 hours a day with them? The problem I've got is that i've got two ducks sitting on eggs. I managed to get the other two off theirs. But i need to figure out if i need to keep these two separate and how will hte other ducks treat the ducklings. Not to mention the chicken and her teenage offspring.

At this point in time, I've only got one very secure caged area and i think the chickens need to stay in there. I can separate a bit off for the ducks and their ducklings and kick all the chickens out during the day but it will be a tight squeeze.

Also i need to figure out how to get the mother ducks and their hatchlings up to the chicken house without incident. I guess I can march them all up together. Its a distance of about 100m. But its a long way for brand new babies. I do'nt want to move them before hatching in case the mother rejects them. I tried that a few days ago with one duck and her eggs. She didn't seem to realise they were her eggs. Not that i really cared that she didn't want to sit on them. I don't want too many ducklings.

I did buy some duckling food. What are you feeding yours? Are you keeping them penned up 24 hours a day.
I love that little bath but I do'nt have one and haven't seen anything like it in any shops around here either. But that's really teh least of my concerns.

 

Hi stingray

thanks for sharing your photos. Your set up looks really good and has given me some great ideas, so thanks again. those ducklings are just gorgous...........

sunburn, if you can rumage around garage sales you should be able to find some things for a pond. I am a garage sale queen and have found lots of stuff that can be used. Old baths tubs, old clam pools etc. I was reading if you get an old bath tub for them to swim in make sure you put a plug in it and have a little trench for the water to drain away down to the veges.

I also read somewhere that you shouldn't let the ducks out till about 10 in the morning. I work full time and was wanting to let them out early say about 6 in the morn and then put them back at night when i get home. I hope that will be ok.

cheers
Annette

 

havent started the blog (yet) .. just set it up last night to start it
that link is to my gallery with more pics i took of our yard
between all of us i think we'd sit out there cuddling ducklings all day if i wasnt strong enough (LOL) to say no...
we've only got the pair .. so havent had to deal with multiple ducks sitting on eggs yet... and havent tried moving a duck and her eggs yet - tho if we expand then maybe i'll come across that - and be watching for your experiences with it
I've a'ways kept the chooks and ducks separate, because when i 2st introduced the ducks to the chook pen, the chooks were pretty violent to them .. i know they prob would have sorted out a "pecking" order at some point and then got along, but as I could, I separated them...
their pen was in the middle of the yard to begin with, (as its just mesh and star pickets - so it could be put over vegi beds ) but when they were old enough to start laying, i moved it to a more permanent position, so once ducklings arrived i wouldnt be movin it again
we havent purchased any "duckling" food, mostly i put the seed mash the ducks/chooks get into a flat try and some water to make it a bit mushy, as well as alot of weeds from garden, they seem to love stems with lawn seed on them, as well as other leafy weeds, my partner also did a tray with leftover porridge (LOL) and weetbix soaked with water that they devoured quickly
oh and as always with them, (LOL) the ducks got left over multigrain bread - the ducklings went nuts over that int he pond water
as for the "bath/pond" have you tried free cycle? I already had the kids "pond/sandpit" clams .. but i source other recycled material thru the local ones near me

 

Yes I tried free cycle. There's nothing much on our local one.

With regard to what you are feeding your ducklings, it sorta runs contrary to what i have read about feeding ducklings - that is with regard to the chicken feed. For one thing they need more niacin. There are other special needs. I think the mash is also a bit of a no - no. I can't remember the details about it all but you might want to read up on it. Yes i have noticed that ducks like the grass seeds. My ducks didn't show any interest in multigrain bread but the chickens liked it. The chickens like fresh lettuces i get from a neighbour but the ducks don't go for that either. The chickens seem to eat a lot of everything.

I haven't seen any problems between my chickens and ducks. Fingers crossed it continues this way.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way. I am just sharing what i read recently in my raising ducks book in case you are interested.

 

LOL.. no.. all good

basically coz we are just starting out down the "duck" path I wasnt goin to buy different feeds for diff animals ... LOL ..
my bad too.. just checked ... actually we have a coarse poultry grain mix now .. not justa laying "mash"
tho i just checked and it doesnt inc added Niacin ...
when i say multigrain bread its coz its the only bread we buy .. LOL... not into white bread .. the ducks (and chooks) loved the leaves off the Kohl rabi i was growing well.. pretty mych any leafy veg too
can I as where in North Q ya are?

 

Near Cairns. Glad I didn't offend.

I think i read that the cheapest source of niacin would be from brewers yeast. Anyway i hope you read up a bit about feeding ducklings. Wouldn't want anything bad to happen to them.

I can't imagine too many white bread eaters on this site.

 

rofl @

yeah ..

will look into the niacin bit.. make sure they are healthy, as I'd like to sell some of the boys and most of the girls off

nice .. never been up there (yet) .. kaety lived up there for a few years before we met .. keeps rubbin how good the fishing is

 

Annette i missed your post before. Sorry.

the reason why people say not to let the ducks out early is so that you can find the eggs. They often do'nt lay till late in the morning and if you let them out early they will make a nest somewhere hard to find. Mine have been doing that. I did find them eventually. But it is better to keep them in. If you have to go to work, what you should try to do to encourage them to lay their eggs in the pen is to create hiding spots in the pen where they might feel inclined to go and lay. They like long grass. I like they like to hide from each other as well as us.

Ive noticed that they like to forage early in the morning and late afternoon.

My ducklings have begun hatching. I am no contemplating leaving them where they are because I read its not a good idea to put them with other poultry. So far I've not seen any snakes and for the moment, they might be ok. I will see how it goes and keep a close eye on them. I could even go and sleep down there tonight... not sure yet whether I will or not. Mum will definitley have a good go at defending her chicks.

 

OK, its almosta week on, and the ducklings are still cute (LOL) .. how ever in the last 2 days .... we have lost 2 .. no sign of how.. no matter how many times i seal up gaps in their fence they seem to find a way out (LOL)
yesterday i woke up and all the ducklings were roaming the yard, so i let momma out and they foraged for about an hour or so before i herded them back into the pen ..
when we got home yesterday arvo, they were out again, and i think i worked out where they got out, so sealed that bit, then during dinner, they got out again so after dinner i went out and rounded them up, but we were 1 short.. after searching about there was no sign of it.. sealed where i thort they came out and then went inside coz it was dark (LOL)
This mornin they were out again, and after rounding them up were were another short.. so now 16 ducklings.
Cannot find any evidence they were taken by a hawk/cat/snake/rat .. no sign of any patches of down anywhere.. have found a couple of holes under fence they prob could have escaped thru .. but lookin over fence shows no sign of them.
even had neighbour searchin his yard (LOL) ..
they seem to stay in the pen during the heat of the day, but mornin and arvo they escape .. no matter that there is alot of feed and weeds in their pen ..
hoping to do some more patch work (LOL) to finally stop them escaping, this arvo....
- Daz

 

I find it hard to believe they would wander away and get lost. These little baby animals seem mostly inclined to go back to mum periodicially. Maybe you don't need feathers to prove that a bird or some other predator got them. I would think htey'd just snatch them adn take them away to eat in private or something. Have you got any shade cloth or an old sarong. that might do to close off all exits. I use shadecloth on my chook pen.

 

Thanks sunburn

If I put up a bit more fencing i could get a really good spot for them I think. Clumps of grass and logs etc. I'm champing at the bit to get these ducks but want them to be happy and safe. I had a bit of a chuckle about you going out there and sleeping there. You sound so much like me!!!!

 

Sorry to hear about your missing ducklings Stingray. Good luck with trying to stop them escaping. Watch out for crows. When i had baby chicks I saw crows dive straight at them and carry them off with no sign of feathers on the ground or anything. that's why I'm really considering doing up the duck pen covered in some shadecloth etc to stop those crows using my ducks as breakfast.

Hope the rest stay safe.

cheers
Annette

 

thanks
yeah annette .. just as it was getting dark tonight, i realised that somethings been digging under their "hutch" .. so i suspect a rat or snake is in their pen
so tomorrow is a "revamp" day .. LOL.. set their hutch on stilts (LOL) to raise it up about a foot, that way can see under there easily and make it not a hiding spot..
havent seen any crows hanging around .. but i do have some more shade cloth i can cover pen with ..

Question: I have separated the drake, would it be better to put him back in there with the mum and ducklings? would he be protective enough to stop them being taken in the pen? or would he attack the ducklings himself?
- Daz

 

Hi Stingray

I learnt in my pdc that another way is to dig about 2 feet down around the pen and put some wire down so that if anything tries to dig under, it cannot get through the wire. May be easier than putting the pen up on stilts. I have read that you should keep the drake separate if he is a bit nasty, but haven't had the experience with ducks. I know my rooster was very protective (gorgeous silky he was) of the chicks. Not sure but I think the drake behaviour might differ between the breeds and of course the individual personality of the the drake itself. maybe put him in there and just watch and see how he goes.

cheers
Annette

 

thanks annette
checked 1st thing this morning to find 3 escapees (LOL) .. - still 15 in total.. lol.. forgot to say we lost another in last nights post
put them back in and came inside for shower and coffee
checked again to find another escapee, this time he was in the drakes side .. and it looks like he is fine with them .. altho i did notice earlier he had a "red" mark on his back.. maybe blood? .. looks like what ya would expect if he had blood on his beak and then preened that spot.. (the ducklings are all fine)
i wonder if he's been attacking what ever's going after the ducklings .. and scored a win .. hehehe ..
thinking that's a pro for puttin him back with them all .. am @ home most of today workin on a clients computer .. so will be able to keep an eye out on them
Wish i had the mesh to do a 2' wire barrier .. thinkin for today ill jusr raise the hutch so theres no "hiding" spot in the pen
- Daz