The only reason to have a high, covered fenced run would be so you can stand up in the covered fenced run. In order to protect your ducks from predators, consider higher fencing and covering the duck run with more wire fencing. Ducks will lay anywhere from to eggs per year depending on the breed of duck.
The eggs are edible, and can be used for your breakfast or cooked in any dish calling for eggs. Many people prefer the slightly stronger flavor of duck eggs. Duck eggs are excellent for baking because they have a slightly higher fat content and richness.
I love raising ducks and enjoy the joyful fun they add to our farm. Share you duck raising stories in the comments! We love to hear how you are raising your poultry, too.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider saving it to your Pin board on Pinterest. Backyard Poultry Mag. Three Tips for Feeding Ducklings. I rescued a pair of ducklings a week ago that some folks had gotten for just a couple of weeks and then they thot that they could turn them loose.
So wrong! And last night, it was stormy, so they were hollering at me before 7 pm to bring them in. Thank you for the info on making them comfortable and keeping them safe. We love our ducks.. Patricia that was really kind of you to step in and keep the babies. It is a real shame that people think they can just turn them out to fend for themselves.
I think they have already stolen your heart and I hope you enjoy raising them. Please feel free to contact us if you have questions as you go along. Janet, I live on oahu, Hi. We have rescuedecided a Muscovy duck. Penelope, she is amazing and gets along with our dog and 4 cats. We have a fenced in yard, she has a pool, and nests under a hibiscus bush.
She flys away every morning making her rounds around the neighborhood. Many of our neighbors know her and love her. Thank you. If you have a fence and she is actually flying over the fence to leave the yard, then a clip should help stop the behavior. We have clipped wings on both ducks and chickens that fly over the fencing to go exploring. Good luck, I hope you figure out the best way to keep her at home! I just got two female peeking ducks older.
I free range in an acre in kcmo, ducks are way different then my chickens. And I hear let there pond get gross before cleaning because they love the bugs that grow?
You seem to know more then me about ducklings it was 82 outside today can i leave them out over night they are a month an a half. Scott I am not sure what you mean by leave them out at night? They are too young to be left out unprotected at night. In my opinion. If you are keeping them in a coop and you see they are mostly feathered out then they should do just fine. I just rescued a duckling.
The poor little guy lost his mom and siblings. Needless to say I love it so much! I hope he does well being raised by you. I had never raised ducks either before last year when a boyfriend thought they would make a great Easter gift. What a life! They moved miles back to VA with me. Now they live in an enclosed 1 acre yard complete with their own 2 foot pool, and a coop at night. Oh please send me more information! Just got ducks the spring have raise chickens ducks are a whole Nother ballgame.
Sounds like you are on the right track! Yes shelter is important and warm water is appreciated. They can be fine drinking cold water but it has to remain unfrozen of course so they can have access to water. I have raised ducks for quite some time.
Just have to make sure water pans are full of in frozen during the day. Building them an add on below the chickens with a heat lamp n hey. Any advice? Also, there is not need to add a heat lamp for ducks Ducks are very cold hardy and the heat lamp near the ground with dry hay is a recipe for a disastrous fire.
As for your mean rooster, he may need a time out. Good luck. I have Pekin ducks. He continually goes after the same hen, and never any of the others. The poor thing is always bloody and missing feathers. We keep her in the house until she heals. It seems as soon as we get her well enough to be back with the flock, he has done this to her again.
Is there anyway to stop him from being aggressive towards just this one, or should we just get rid of him? Is he still in his first year? My drakes have been terrible as young males. The following years it is more subdued.
But you may need to separate them most of the time if he is hurting her that badly. I have raised chickens for a long time. I was in the middle of tearing my kitchen floor out because of water damage and my grown son comes driving up with 2 ducklings that his kids bought at Tractor Supply.
Needless to say I have had them or 3 weeks. I have never witnessed something that has grown so fast. They throw water all over the place. Water every where, Food every where and poo every where. Ha I hope I enjoy these critters. When can I let them outside. I see no feathers.
My chicks I got several days after I got these are feathering. These are yellow fuzz balls. They have the best personality and seemed to like to snuggle. Is it ok to snuggle with a duck. They will be 4 weeks old tomorrow. Thanks for any advice. There should be some down left and some feathers by now because a lot of times ducklings can go outside around 4 -6 weeks of age because they are more advanced in feathering than the chicks.
And the mess, yeah, I hear ya on that. It is amazing how much mess they can make with a little bit of water. I would love to see a photo of the ducklings if you have one to share — janet. What should the temp and humidity level be in an incubator for duck eggs? Thank you so much! I know the time is at least 28 days. It has been a couple years since I had duck eggs in the incubator so I need to look it up.
I have been considering ducks for several years now. I have raised chickens for years and thoroughly enjoy them. Thanks for your wonderful article! It is encouraging to know they could get by with a small amount of water. I made the mistake of saying I have wanted ducks my entire life, and hoped to have some before I died..
Well, my son took that literally and he and his girlfriend got me two little tiny ducks. They are precious.. I have them in my bedroom due to no garage to keep them in. They are in a huge rabbit cage and now that they are over 2 weeks old, they drag their beaks across the bars of their enclosure to let me know they are hungry… One loves to be held, the other not so much.
They are a bonded pair and I have no idea if I have a male or female. I need advice on what type of outdoor enclosure and how big? Be careful what you ask for! I would suggest a low to the ground structure.
Otherwise you may find them wandering the neighborhood! We are brand new to the duck scene ,but I find myself pulling up a chair and watching our 2 Pekin going crazy in the baby pool. We got two Rouen ducks last spring. One ended up being a male and the two became inseparable. Unfortunately something got the male this winter.
The female, Harriet, was heartbroken. Since then she has become attached to me. She runs to my car quaking when I get home and will lay down so I can pet her. She follows me ever where. She tries to hang with our two chickens, but we knew she needed some ducky friends. We just got two Golden ducklings and when we let them out in the yard Harriet is so happy and the babies follow her around.
I love my ducks!! I rescued a pekin female duck from the middle of a five lane highway…. They love each other. I have twisted my ankle and my knees are shot from doing this every night for three weeks! I am not sure how long this has been going on but you do need to herd them from behind If you get in front of them they will run from you. Compare that with chicks, whom I brood at a time and only have to clean the box a couple times a week.
On the bottom of the box I put down rubber shelf liner. I have a small baking sheet that I put in the brooder box. For a feed dish, you want to use something fairly shallow they can access easily. I use a terracotta pot saucer. For their water, I use a Mason jar water base for the first days.
They grow so fast that by the end of that first week, they will be having a hard time fitting their heads and bills in the dish. After the first week, I switch to a glass 1.
Ducklings can eat the same starter feed you would give chicks. You want to find a non-medicated starter chick feed. Ducklings eat a lot more than chicks and could overdose on medication making them sick if you get the medicated feed.
Too much protein can lead to a wing deformity called angel wings where the wing joint sticks out instead of laying flat against the body. Ducklings require times the amount of niacin that chicks need, so commercial chick starter will not provide the necessary niacin that ducklings need. If you add the yeast into your big bag of feed, the yeast will just sink to the bottom. For every cup of feed I put in the dish, I mix in 1. Once you start giving them treats beyond their feed, you need to provide the ducklings with grit sand or commercial chick grit to help them digest the food.
This is because ducklings grow so much faster. You will want to start out with a heat lamp warming the area to 90 degrees.
Use a heat bulb with a red filter to ease stress. From there you go down about 1 degree a day. Just raise your heat lamp up a little each day, and by the end of the first week aim to be around 83 degrees, and by the end of the second week around 76 degrees. The ducklings will let you know if they are uncomfortable. If they are peeping loudly and huddled together bring the heat back some more. By the end of the third week, you are aiming for a temperature of 69 degrees. If you are brooding the ducks in your house, sometime during that second week you are going to be hitting the regular air temperature inside and can turn the heat lamp off.
I brood my ducks in my sunroom which during the day is fine, but can get a little chilly at night, so I turn the heat lamp off during the day and turn it on at night if they need it. What makes ducklings so messy? Well there is the obvious, they poop a lot and it is pretty runny because of all the water they drink. But in addition, and I think the bigger offender, is the way they eat and drink.
But often there is still food in their bill, which gets into the water. When they are done eating, they like to dip their whole heads in the water about a dozen or so times to get clean and possibly get in the water to splash around a bit. After they have been eating and food starts dissolving in the water it turns brown and mucky and they shake that water onto all the walls of the brooder making every surface gross.
Mid day, I do the same, usually around 2 PM. Then before I go to bed around PM, I do a bigger cleaning. I take everything out of the box, including the shelf liner which by this point is caked with poo and mushed up food. I put everything back and add clean straw. Ducklings can technically swim when they are about a week old but they lack the oil in their feathers that help adult ducks be so buoyant.
In the wild, mother duck rubs some of her oil on her babies to help them swim. A tub or sink filled with a little water for them to splash around in will be fine and they will have a blast in there.
A tired duckling with no waterproofing can easily drown so always be there to supervise. After about 5 weeks, they should be preening to distribute the oil in their feathers and good to swim on their own for longer times. By the third week, you can start introducing your ducklings to the great outdoors on warm, sunny days at least 65 degrees. Make sure they are in a secure run or playpen and monitor their excursions to keep them safe from predators.
Keep the first few trips outside short, gradually lengthening their time outside to get them used to outdoor temperatures. Somewhere around their 6th-8th week they should have lost their baby fluff and be feathered out. But they can move outside permanently anytime after week 4 as long as nighttime temperatures are not too low at least 50 degrees. And by this point, you will be more than ready for these messy house guests to move to their new home! Thank you so much for all the info,we are hoping to move where we can get ducks and this is very helpful.
The pics really give a better idea of what to expect, thank you again. Today was day two with our new 5, 14day old ducklings. My daughter had ALOT of pine shavings left over from horse camp so We have a 50gal rubber tub with the pine shavings and it seems to do well All day!
I will turn the shavings half way tbrough the day and Before bed, I will add a thin layer over the other so they have dry for bedtime and change everything in the morning. It seems to work very well!! I also put their food in a metal pie tin, very shallow! It has deep enough edges they can stick their bills in. That is great! We have done two ducklings at a time twice now and that smell was enough! I would definitely keep an eye on them for the first couple days in that heat — but if they are with their mom she will take good care of them!
They had sores on their feet and were incredibly grungy. We have them in a crib but they have already outgrown it. Thus, I was wondering if you thought it might be possible to move them to our fenced in chicken area with another duck of ours with a heat lamp on during the day so that they could warm up as needed.
Then, at night, we could move them in the coop with the adult duck and 20 chickens. I think putting them outside on warm days until the temps come up and keeping them inside even if they are cramped on cold days would be perfect. Did you get them at tractor supply? If they still have most of their downy feathers they are likely under 2 weeks. They grow super fast! Thank you so much for the info! I have a question, so my husband brought home 6 ducklings because the local feed store had them on sale for 25 cents they are older 2 weeks, is it normal that the peck themselves often?
It even looks like they have irritated their skin? I may be paranoid but I donhave want our son playing with them if there is something wrong? Do you see any mites or lice on them they are really really tiny, but if you hold the duckling and part the feathers you should see them running about on the skin.
My guess is though that they were stressed from being at the feed store for so long, probably in a cramped box and maybe not given the proper care. I would give them some electrolytes in their water and loving care and I bet they will soon be looking good!
We have 3 6 week old ducklings, and they have been handled since day 1. I think it is just a personality thing. My duckling crys when we put him back in his tub house. He is alone what can I do? We found him when he was in the egg. Ducks are really social animals — especially when they are young. But if at all possible, I would recommend getting him a real duckling for a friend.
I have 8 ducklings mallard that hatched in a nest. They are with their mother Lola most of the time and they were swimming on day 2 in a baby pool in the backyard. There is no brewers yeast in this town, really. I like your article but feel overwhelmed as the ducklings are fed with 4 adult ducks and eat and poop in the adult pans and ignore their chick starter mixed with a green pea puree.. They have learned to forage and drill holes with the best of them. Am I doing enough? They eat like piranhas!
They really do eat an insane amount! They grow super fast so they need all that food! When I have chicks or ducklings in the flock, I switch everyone over to a starter mix. The added calcium in an adult layer mix is not good for babies of either species.
Maybe switch everyone over to the starter with the added pea puree the peas are a great idea! I know nursing mothers use it often to build up milk supply, so maybe in the infant section of a health store? I think you are doing a great job, keep it up! If they are around thier mom they should be fine.
Ducklings get thier niacin and other essentials by eating the mamas poop. So my male just died.. And the female is crying.. She was 7 weeks on Wednesday.. Should I get her some babies?? Or would she kill them? Ducks are fast growers, I would get her some new friends and she will likely be fine with them. I have 2ducklings. Mallards Anas platyrhynchos are waterfowl with massive presence all over the planet. In the Northern Hemisphere, mallards are the most prevalent type of duck.
The majority of domestic ducks in existence have ancestral roots with these sizable and sturdy puddle ducks. Male and female mallards generally become physically mature around the same age. Mallards generally grow to body lengths of 15 to 16 inches, with wingspans of around 3 feet. The plumage of male mallards is a combination of green, brown and black.
The males' heads are vivid green. The females and youngsters of the species, on the other hand, are a dull brownish color all over their bodies. Considering raising a few ducks? Ducks, especially Pekins, are fast growers that will be ready to eat at weeks of age. All other duck breeds will take longer to reach processing size and weight.
I enjoy baby poultry of all kinds, really, but ducklings are the ones that make me smile the most. The best part about ducks is they are hardy. I find ducklings to be much easier to raise than chicks. Ducklings are just tougher. Granted, they can be messier than chicks, but ducklings are definitely more likely than chicks to make it out of the brooder and into your freezer!
Ducks are also a quick project, with Pekins taking just about two months to grow. Wow, do those Pekins grow fast! Pekins are the fastest growing domestic duck and the most common to be kept as a meat bird. Pekins reach full size at weeks and would most commonly be butchered then. If you want your birds a bit larger wait another 3 weeks or so. The reason for the odd, but specific, weeks of age to butcher is that the feathers come in at certain ages on a duck.
While you can butcher your ducks at any time, if you want a nice looking finished product you need to process them at a time when there are no pin new growth feathers.
Of course there are many breeds of ducks that you could be raising, any of which could be used for eating. Pekins are also the duck with the most specific growth information available, simply because they are the most popular meat duck. Other ducks will mature into fine eating birds as well, it will just take a longer time, more like 5 months to get to a good mature weight.
The advantages to Pekins is that they grow the fastest, are easy to find and are easiest to pluck, since the feathers are white. But they also require attending and need supplemental feed, they grow too fast to get all of the feed they need from foraging around. If you want or your situation requires a duck that can do more for itself then you will be better served with a slower growing duck.
These slower growing ducks light breeds will be able to find most of their own feed and raise their own ducklings, like Khaki Campbells or Runners. Looking for more info on duck breeds?
Consider reading my article 16 Duck Breeds For Eggs And Meat to get more specifics on each breed and its best qualities. The breed you choose depends upon which combination of factors you want mainly size at maturity and time to butchering age.
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