So yah, we are trying a new adventure this year, partly for pest control, but also for eggs and entertainment. We picked up eight 2-day old ducks that are all supposed to be females. I've been told that, unlike Turkeys, you can comingle your female (hens) ducks and chickens without any issues. The only problems are if you have drakes (males) with hen chickens. So, we chose all females, at least to start with to see what comes of this. Ducks are much better than chickens at pest control. Ducks love slugs and other bugs, which we have a lot of "both."
So, we are into day one. Similar to day old chicks, ducklings need extra heat for the first few weeks. About 90F ambient heat. Just like with our chicks, we are using a brooder warmer in lieu of a heat lamp. At first, I thought, "oh no" they aren't going to figure that warmer out. Well, they are using it now.... it just took a few hours of them wandering under and back out before they figured out that it actually is warmer under there. We read that the warmer base needs to be set higher for ducks so that they can easily walk under it. I may tilt it a bit so that one side (front) is higher than the back side so that they can snuggle closer to the back with a bit more warmth when they lay down. But, yah, they finally figured it out.
Water and food. I have a three pound feeder, just like what I use for my older chicks. But for water, I'm using the feeders that I would typically use for my day old chicks. I have the quart bottle attached even though there is no water inside of it. The bottle keeps them out of the center so that they don't get totally drenched in the water because they walk right over the top of the waterer, and the feeder, just like chicks. But the holes are perfect for their little heads to scoop up water right after they take a bit of food. They kind of shake and shutter when they scoop up a bite of food until they go over to the water to wash it down, then they kind of shake again, after the food goes down. It is interesting. We will need to fill the base of the makeshift waterer several times per day since it only holds about a half cup of water and ducks drink a lot more water than chicks. Also, with the food, we don't seem to need to grind down the feed crumbles.
We are using the same organic chick feed that we raise our pullets on, but we are supplementing that with brewer's yeast for the vitamins, probiotic, and niacin that is contained in the yeast. Everything I have read is that young ducklings need the niacin for bone development and after they are mature, they will get those nutrients from the other things they will eat around the yard.
Not certain yet whether ducklings struggle with pasty butt caused by stress and dehydration. Time will tell.
Day old hatchery ducklings don't have feathers (similar to chicks) and they also don't have the body oils that wild or domestic ducks would get from their Momma Hen Duck. So, even though they can swim at this point, briefly, they don't have the natural water repellant they get when they grow feathers. So, the key is to keep them fairly dry until they have those feathers. But also, they are natural swimmers. A lot of people will set up a mini water pool (a plastic shoe box or a casserole pan) to let them swim for a few minutes every other day, then dry them off and put them back under their heat source (heat lamp or warmer station). But don't leave the pool in their brooder because they will head right back to it and cause a mess or could even possibly drown.
So this is all we know for now. It will be a steep learning curve with ducks since we are more pullet focused and have our brains geared for taking care of day old chicks, and not so much for day old ducks.
