Duckling help

[jimred]

update question.
the duckling has been brought up with some chicks in a brooder and stick closely together, will the duckling and chicks BE OK together in the run and eventually free ranging in the garden or will it need a friend?

will it matter if its a drake or duck?
thanks

jim




Well a long story really, but a guy found a duck egg on his decking next to his pond, he brought it into work and asked if i wanted, i of course said yes took it home and stuck it under a broody hen.

19 days later my hen gets into the wrong nest box and all the eggs went cold, so put them into my incy and all the chicken eggs failed to hatch but i left the duck egg in just in case and its hatched!

i assume its going to be Mallard type, my OH has named it already!

its now in with my one week old chicks and looking well, my question is will it be happy eating chick crumb?

[Suechooks]

I seem to remember that waterfowl shouldn't have medicated crumb - ie the one with ACS so it depends what you're using.

[Bramble-Poultry]

Sue is correct - you must ensure that your crumb is NON ACS - but yes all of ours have chick crumb the same.

They are messy clumsy buggers though so watch him though as they will trample inadvertantley over smaller chicks especially in the scrum for food an water!

He will need heat for a lot longer than your chicks as they are a couple of months old before they feather up!

[OverWyreGrower]

We had some 2 week old chicks and ducklings together, and the ducklings were so clumsy, that they smothered several of the chicks....

Also, the duckling will have the urge to paddle in whatever water you put in, regardless of container. They will make everything utterly wet through!

On a slightly different note, my ducks are much hardier than my chicks at 3 weeks old....

[jimred]

Thanks for the info, just been out to get a new bag of crumbs

I seem to remember that waterfowl shouldn't have medicated crumb - ie the one with ACS so it depends what you're using.

[Bramble-Poultry]

also, at a few weeks old listen to see if it honks or quacks - that way you will be able to sex it earlier! quacks = female

[petal]

We have 2 mallards that hayley gave us and they really brighten your garden up. I personally would not raise ducklings and chicks together as ducklings are such messy, yucky things! Could you not buy a duckling locally to keep with this one separately, so he has company?

[jimred]

update today