Ducklings - your experience please.

I don't think the duck needs sex to make eggs. Its just that the drakes like a bit of hanky panky and anyway unlike with chickens, ducks seem to be serious about relationships. Chickens seem more independent. More sociopathic if you ask me.

Yeah i think yours may be one week older than mine.

So if you are only going to take every second egg, are you going for more hatchlings?

I admit the rooster crowing does wake me up sometimes and i do feel a little annoyed but mostly its because I worry about the neighbours. I certainly don't want baby chickens born of incest. I"m sort of wishing i had a different breed of chickens. A nicer breed.

Are you going to separate the duck from her ducklings?

 

https://www.photoblog.com/shangrila/2010/12/09/ducklings-growing.html#comments

More ducklings

 

aww.. soo cute
LOL
am a sucker for ducklings .. LOL
unfortunately we lost one over night
not sure what happened .. my sleep in day (LOL>. wish i actually got to sleep in .. LOL) .. and when i went out @ 8:30 am to let em out.. once had drowned in the pond ..
all the rest seem ok.. so will keep an eye on them to see if was just a one off or if they are gettin sick
- Daz

 

jeez stingray that's terrible. Do you mean it died by drowning or did it drown by another means. Was it unable to get out of the pond? I am very conscious of this happening and try to avoid having a bowl that they can't get out of. They are really keen to explore bodies of water so will try to get in. So you have to make it hard for them if they are not going to be able to get out. I've got a large one that is ook for the big ducks. Since i've had the ducklings i have taken it out of the whole in the ground so its too hard for the little ones to get in.

I forgot to note here that yesterday I retrieved a plastic bucket of a wheelbarrow that was being disposed of. A friend cut off the base and it is going to make a fabulous pond for the big ducks and little ducks. I will have to put in some sort of plank or ladder that they can all walk out on since its going to be quite deep. There's a slope but its quite a steep one. I will put this whole thing in a hole i dig in the ground. I can't wait. Dad is going to buy me some silicone to plug the holes. He forgot to do it yesterday. I am so impatient to see them all love this bath.

 

yeah .. i havent been worried about drowning as i has some roof tiles as ramps for them to get out, and even when day olds they could get out fine ...
I actually think it could be because i forgot top change thier water yesterday and i have noticed if the waters "yuck" they dont seem to be so "water proof" ..
S i don't really know if it drowned on its own . or if it could have been in the pond and momma hopped in at the same time .. and maybe accidentaly drowned her

 

Well my good luck has run out. The snakes have arrived and tonight, just now, i was too late to rescue little Lucy from a carpet snake. I went down there to check on them before coming up here to my laptop. I didn't see the snake at first. I heard one duckling cheeping like mad and found it far away from the others. Then i saw that Lucy was missing and then I saw the snake squeezing her to death. It was too late by the time we got the snake off her though. We killed the snake. I know there will be others around so tomorrow everybody is moving to the chicken house for night times.

I feel very sad and very bad. That little Lucy had really won my heart.

 

aww nooooo! .. sorry to hear it was lucy :{
... am definately learning nature is cruel... even tho i try to be "tough guy" . LOL... they do get to me .. :}
i know they say have more ducks for the drake .. but do ducks pair for life? as the new drake gets the cold shoulder from momma, yet the ducklings dad gets to do the deed.
so goin to put the ducklings in the pen with the new drake and let them have the main pen and see if she starts laying, as i checked the "house" and the nest looks remade again ..
size wise, it looks like all but 2 of the ducklings are def boys (as 9 look really "long" in body).... good for our freezer i spose.. hehe
thinkin i either need to make a 3rd pen (LOL) .. or move (LOL)
- Daz

 

Well please be careful about the behaviour of the drake with the ducklings. Our drake has been chasing the little ducklings away and is quite aggressive towards them, as are the other ducks. YOu can't force the duck to lay. Its a hormonal thing. I think you should be patient. Didn't we say up above that it takes 6-8 weeks before they start laying again. They don't need a drake to start laying, if they are like chickens, only if you want fertilised eggs.

Mostly in nature (amongst mammals anyway) the weaker drakes just miss out. I can't remember how you came to get another drake. Ducks in captivity would behave a bit differently from ducks in the wild. But noted drakes prefer more than one duck because they like to root more than once a day it seems. I've started seeing it quite often. Wouldn't be so fair on mumma if she had to put up with that everyday.

 

hey... yeah . am watching them pretty closely .. the duck, duckling and the 2 drakes pretty much roam the yard whilst i am home
The new drake - Sir Fransis (LOL), got him so that we added genetic diversity when the ducklings grew up and became ducks (got him now as one was bring given away) stays in his pen for a while after the doors opened,
yet the old drake - Peeping, exits asap and starts following me around
Checked hutch today and egg #1's been laid ..
sorta in 2 minds as to remove every 2nd for eating or just to let her clutch them all (last time she laid 20 .. wondering if she would still lay upto 20, then sit on the 10 left - if i took every 2nd one or so - or if she would keep laying until she had 20 under her for clutching)
and yeah .. we do want another lot of cute lil yellow things
they are 6 weeks old this thursday coming .. so another 4-5 weeks until "chop" for all the boys
- Daz

 

So the ducklings and ducks have been moved up to the chicken house in the evenings now. I don't like having the ducklings in close quarters with the grown ups though because they bully them and this morning i noticed bite marks on the wings of one little duckling. Poor little buggers. I wish i had a second cage but i guess sooner or later they will have to get along with this big baddies.

Meanwhile one of the ducks has taken to sitting on eggs again and I am letting her since I was unable to remove her from the next yesterday. In feeling around, i noticed there were a few eggs there and i figured she must be sitting on eggs from some of the other ducks as well. But i'd like to keep her separate from the others because I don't want any more eggs to go under her if i can sell them. And i am looking into that now. But i would like to move her back to the chicken house so that the snakes don't get her or the eggs. Its hot now so its time the snakes are out and about. I thought i'd try to get her off them during the day.

I wish i had a second hen house. I'd like to be down in the duck yard as i think down the track i think i'd like that to be the main sleeping quarters. I don't really feel like building another hen hosue right now though. I am flat out feeling like doing anything at all in fact.

I found a perfect duck bath the other day. A plastic wheelbarrow bin. It needs its holes plugged up though. I got some silicone for that.

 

sounds great
i've had to seperate the ducks/ducklings now .. pretty sure, by size we have 9 boys and 1 girl , and the dad gets a lil "pushy" to them ..
we had that one that looked too harassed with some blood .. but after separation he came good.. and cant pick which one it was now
am starting to feel a lil guilty that I dont have the room to have a large pen for them, as well as free range the yard ..
hoping to get another kids "clam shell" this week to add an extra pond or two for the ducklings
she hasnt had any more eggs laid, wondering if the dad crunched them coz the new drake might have been the father of those 2 or 3... before i seperated them??
anyways.. they are gettin big now ... 7 weeks old this week ... they've gone from chasing just the bugs in my bean bed to strippin the leaves .. oh well.. another lot of mesh to make to exclude them from that bed as well.... LOL .. had to put a mesh "hanger" over my corn bed as they were pulling the seedlings out trying to get the flies.. lol

 

I know its frustrating when they eat the plants you want to grow big. I noticed that if they had other things to eat they leave those things alone. For instance initially they were eating my pumpkin vines but they don't do this anymore. Sometimes i notice they eat some plants and at other times the same ones not and i notice that this depends on if they get lettuces from my neighbour or not. So maybe you could plant decoy plants in front of those you want to keep. Its just a suggestion since you have a fairly small yard.

In the ducks pen at night, i have just thought that what i might do is set up a room divider to keep Bertie on one side and let the ducklings have some peace on the other side. I will just get a piece of mesh (the one i dragged all the way back to the nursery last week, in fact the one i have dragged back and forth several times now) and put it across. Ducks don't jump so that should keep them apart easily.

The duck i brought up form the duck yard and her eggs have gone back to the duck yard after spending most of the day up at the chicken house. She wouldn't sit on the eggs up there and when i opened the door, she ran back to the mint plant nest and got in with out her eggs. So i put them back later. I know she won't get any more fertilised eggs so i might start putting some of the others under her to sit on cause i don't need to eat them all.

I got in touch with the woman who knows the woman who wants my eggs. Of course that woman is away for holidays now. Nevermind.

 

I reckon i've got three males and one female in my batch of ducklings. Its just as well that i have another batch on the way. I let this duck have seven eggs, two of them are hers.

I think one of the ducklings managed to get in the big new pond this afternoon. I only became aware of it when there was a huge splashing about. Unfortunately i think it meant that he hadn't been able to get out easily and had to take a flying leap to get out. He was getting out when i noticed him. When i put it in the ground it will be better and i will put in a ramp as well.

They are all doing very well now but they are still afraid of me which hurts i must admit.

 

aww... mine run at me when i go out there (LOL.. helps that since they have been free ranging i'll take food out for the ducklings.. as extra .. LOL.. ) .
i get mobbed .. and laff when i call "duck duck duck" and they all come runnin like a pack of dogs .. funny .. they run away from my kisd tho (LOL) .. prob coz all they wanna do is pick em up
rofl.. hrmm .. think i'll video it tomorrow and youtube it .. hehehehe
we still got 10 .. and 1's still alot smaller than the other 9 ..
lady next door loves them .. lol.. so much her hubby's offered to make her a pen and buy 2 boys off us (as they dont wanna do the duckling route .. lol)
good idea the ramp.. i have 2 roof tiles.. one in the bottom of the pond and one angled out .. works well .. tho.. i hadnt done that in the "pond" in the other drakes pen - and i leave doors open and the ducklings went in there and one couldnt get out as the drake had splashed about and the water level wasnt high enough for the duckling to get out ..
nice ya got next lot on the way
last i looked on friday .. she was sittin on 6 eggs (tho 1 is the one she laid almost 1 1/2 weeks ago .. then didnt lay again for like 6 days ) hoping all things go smoothly ..

 

The chooks run at me like that.

My ducklings are fed so much they don't have to go foraging even though they are free to go where they like. They just sit all day, sometimes staying in the pen. Well ok that's not quite true. In the afternoon they take a nibble of this and that for about five minutes.

The grown ups are good though. They look for food throughout they day and then enjoy what i give them. I mean none of them are starving but they always like it when i've got something for them. They just don't seem to love me for it, or even make a pretence of it, like yours do.

 

hehe .. my chooks would destroy my vegi beds if i let em out.. LOL
the duckling love the scraps i give the chooks
so i dump them along the indide edge of the chook tractor.. that way the ducks stick their heads thru and get what they want
i give the ducks alot of seed/mash .. but they do seem to prefer to rampage about the yard chasing bugs and weeds/leaves .. and they are growin so fast .. so they must be getting everything they need
mine are so used to the routine now.. gonna miss them .. LOL .. oh well.. only a month or so til the next lot..
def need to move somewhere i can have alot more .. keep 6 or so as egg layers.. and the another lot espec for ducklings .. then thered be a flock all the time .. LOL

 

Stingers, i've got a new duckling today. She's sooooooooooooooooo cute as i know you can imagine. I am hoping that more will hatch in the next day or two. Its tricky right now as its raining solidly. I will move mum and babies as soon as I can up to the chook house in case of snakes. But i am waiting till all are hatched first. I've seen a few snakes around lately. One red-bellied black and one brown snake. The latter was heading right for the chook pen when i saw it but luckily this sort of snake doesn't eat chickens. It would kill me though if i stood on it and it bit me.

About the first lot that are huge now. They are all bigger than their parents. And as Joe said, this is because they've had better feed. I noticed it first by the size of their feet. They all have very sturdy legs and big feet much bigger than their mums and just a bit more than their dad's and they are only about 2 months old!! Body wise, they are still growing but they all pretty big and as big as their mum i think. Even the girl. But boy are they lazy. They don't go foraging at all. I think i must have spoiled them as babies. I have a real soft spot for the parents.

I haven't dealt with the need to cull the boys in this group though. We killed the rooster recently and that was so awful i decided not to do the ducks until i could find someone who could teach me how to do it properly or find someone else to do it. I am glad not to have the rooster around any more though i must say. He was too noisy. the ducks just eat too much so that's why they must go sooner rather than later. Though i must say its nice to see 9 almost full grown ducks rushing around together - which is what they do when they are hungry. They chase me. Them and all the chickens.

Now daddy duck is a naughty duck who terrorises his offspring so i have just started to chuck him out of the hen house at night. Recently i heard a great noise in the middle of the night and thinking it might be a snake i rushed down there and saw that all the grown up ducklings were hiding behind the hen cupboard. Its not a good place for them as there is less protection from the rain and why should they have go and hide there. So i told Bertie he had to go outside. I don't think he's happy about it. He feels less safe but if he had behaved, he could stay in. I could also put him in a separate compartment as I was doing before but that's hard work and awkward. No for the moment, he can be outside. If he's not too stupid, he can find shelter under the car or under a tree.

 

When growing we had Muskogee's and Mallard ducks semi wild in the back pond. Dad would wake in the morning, walk outside and start clapping his hands and ducks would come swarming in, there must have been between 30-40 in the end there. There pretty self sufficient. My dog on 2 occasions brought in a baby duck from outside gently in its mouth and we just raised it as a dog. It ate out of the dogs bowl, slept snuggled next to the dog, it would actually push my dobie out of the way so it could eat his food. When outside it would follow him around outside, and we'd dig worms in the yard and the duck would patiently wait for a worm to wiggle then pounce. Eventually both joined the rest of the ducks in the pond but it was fun while they were here.

 

Wow i am going to kidnap that duckling and make myself its mother. I want to be followed by a little cutie like that but i am not sure my cat will like it too much. That's the only worry. Although then he would be one of the stolen generation!

 

Seeming as how timid around all the ducks he was, I don't see him kidnapping it. I lean more towards he came across a stray duckling and rater than letting a local stray cat or hawk scoop him up my dog took it under its wing. this only happened 2 x in a 12 yr span so I give him the benefit of the doubt. also we never put a leash or caged it. we just gave it food while it stayed with us. even when young it just followed him outdoors as well as in. somehow these ducks imprinted my dog as the mother.