Doing things the hard way.
If you look around for opinions on whether or not to brood chicks and ducklings together you will find plenty of people who will tell you not to do it.
Ducks are *messy*,
they grow a *lot* faster than your chicks and will bowl them over,
they play with their water and will turn a brooder into a horrific wet muck hole..
This is very true! the last point is particularly important as chicks don't do well in damp and constantly wet conditions, it can lead to some pretty bad health issues.
On the other hand, if you manage these issues you will be fine.
We planned for our birds to live together in a big coop when they were old enough, figuring that if they were raised together from the start it would save issues later on reintroducing them.
I tried to do as much reading as I could to be prepared, but there was still a lot of surprises along the way
Brooder 1.0 before birds!
The first step is to set up the brooder before your babies arrive, turn on the heat source so it's already warm for them, put out food and water.
The brooder
I can't remember off the top of my head how big this was, but we started with 3 quite large boxes. Cardboard has done me quite well so far, it's been used for a brooder, hospital boxes, vet transport boxes and even a time out box for Bonnie when she was being a tart.
You will need to line it with something so it doesn't just disintegrate when someone splashes water everywhere! I've used carwrap vinyl (being a sign writer has to be good for something right?)
I've seen people use large plastic containers, a bath tub or kids swimming pools as a brooder and these are great ideas, but what I love most about cardboard is it's easy to find, cheap or free and easy to add on another 'room' to your brooder as the babies grow. Plus when you are done just recycle it!
Of note... I actually thought this box would last for a few weeks then the birds could move into a bigger fridge box and then the coop... haha noooo...
I follow the author of http://jackshenhouse.com/ on a chicken forum and she had mentioned adding wire covered windows to brooder boxes. they are great ideas! you can see in and your birds can sit in front of their window and watch out.
Just make sure they are higher than the level of your bedding, when your chicks learn to scratch around they will back up and boot stuff out the window alllll over the floor
Birds enjoying the window
It's up to you where you keep the brooder. It's noisy and too warm in our garage, I had considered the bathroom but wanted to keep an eye on the birds so it came into our lounge. It gets lots of sun and there was a nice big area they could go into. We placed a tarp on the floor which was a life saver when the chicks learned to perch on the side to poo off the edge.
Bedding
Quite a few people who have raised chicks before have their preferences already, I would advise against newspaper as it can get very slippery when wet and cause spraddle leg in your birds.
My own preference is wood shavings, I didn't have any issues with the birds eating them and they absorbed dampness pretty well when stirred up. They were also reasonably cheap which is great as I went through HEAPS of the stuff!
A heat source
looking around I could have purchased a new heat lamp set up, or for roughly the same price I could get an ecoglow.
It can be a bit of a pain to adjust the height by wedging the legs off and there are only three height options, but this was fine for me.
Our idiots were used to a heat lamp when they arrived, they were so confused! where do we keep warm? we tried placing them under the warmer and they ran out, tried to keep them under for a few seconds and they still ran. T had to place it over them while they slept in a chick pile and from then on they -loved- it.
Stevie duck loved it even when the only part of him that would fit under was his head. He claimed it as his own
Things that fit under and ecoglow 20 - 6 x 3 week old chicks
or half a duck
FoodYou can feed ducks chick starter, you will find people will tell you to give ducklings un medicated feed. They will eat a lot more than chicks so some of the medications can cause issues for them.
When we picked up our babies, the breeder sold us a chick starter with rumensin as a coccidiostat, she has been using this for years with her babies and they all do well. Ours all grew well from it.
If you are unsure, and can find it, they will be fine with un medicated feed, you should be keeping the brooder dry and clean and be making sure there is no over crowding so there shouldn't be issues (hopefully) anyway.
Ducks need niacin, if you are lucky enough to find a duck feed your chicks can have too then you shouldn't need to worry. But for those of us that can't, you can add brewers yeast by sprinkling it over food. Niacin will help your ducks have nice healthy legs.
One thing I was unsure of was how long to feed chick starter, I wanted the chicks to get the most from their food too, but the high protein in starter can lead to angel wing in ducks. My starter feed suggested changing to grower feed from 6 weeks so that's what we did and despite my worries it worked out well.
I had originally planned to make feeders from bottles, but settled on a feeder from a farm store. Just be aware if you give food in an open dish your birds can and will climb all over it and poop in it, which you don't want them eating! (erm, ducklings sometimes do eat poop though, apparently it's normal, I checked...grubby little things)
Water
Your ducklings need deep enough water that they can clean their nares and eyes (hearing little duckies blowing water out their nose is adorable!) but nothing they can swim in on their own. They will get water everywhere, it's what they do!
Ducks need water with their food so they don't choke so place the two close.
One thing that will save your sanity is to place the waterer over a big dish covered in wire netting, most of the water will go into the dish and not all over their bedding.
One thing I have learnt though, don't just buy the cheapest waterer... I made the mistake of buying one that refilled itself part way and then stopped for no reason. Looking around apparently quite a few in the similar style as shown below behave in this way.
Some people add soft toys for snuggling and company
Something your chickies can practise roosting on. I made them a little roosting platform from wood and they did sit on it, but not often. They didn't sleep on it together and played a game of angry peeping chick pile for quite some time, the winner of angry chick pile, surprisingly, is the one on the bottom in the middle.
Dried and fresh herbs can be good too. I liked to tie fresh mint to the wire windows, the ducks went utterly mental for it and it made everything smell nice.
There are many food treats you can begin to give your new buddies - scrambled eggs, chopped up vegies like broccoli, bugs and our ducks favourite peas
If you give your buddies treats, you shouldn't be giving them too much. their starter feed provides the nutrients and vitamins they will need to be healthy birds, but a few treats now and then is fine and they will appreciate it. If you start feeding more than the starter feed they will need grit, apparently fine granite is good, but I can't find it anywhere here, you can however dig up a clump of grass with dirt, roots bugs etc all intact (This I also learnt from Jacks hen house) , just trim the grass so it isn't too long or it can tangle up in your birds crop. The clump will provide food, grit and entertainment! plus introduce the birds to pathogens that may exist in the area they will one day inhabit.
The brooder, 2.0 (week 2!)
As mentioned above, I had expected to keep everyone happily in the first brooder for at least a few weeks... by the end of week one the ducks were already so big they were having trouble fitting under the ecoglow, everyone was getting a bit irritable, it was obvious they needed more room already.
Frantically I wrapped the fridge box in vinyl, added windows and joined it to the smaller brooder (in the above picture it is on the left).A second waterer and feeder were added.
It's important to provide the babies with enough room at all times. Over crowding can lead to illness, fighting and bullying.
The brooder 3.0 (week 3...)
Check out those scruffy birds! Stevie parked under the warmer as usual.
When Stevie started parking his fluffy duck butt in the middle of doorways and complaining at anyone trying to get past we had to remove any internal walls. this was fine but it made collecting the ducks for outdoor time and bath time rather difficult.
Thankfully the brooder didn't grow from here, our babies went from here to the coop
Scruffy muffins
That's pretty much it! you can choose to put a lid of some sort on the top to keep the chicks in, eventually they will realise their tiny wings are great for parking their butts over the side of their home to poop off the side, and when they get slightly older and braver they may decide to take themselves for adventures outside their box. We didn't often use a lid, but it did mean scraping poop off the tarp floor covering.
I also made a habit every night of emptying the full water trays, refilling feeders and waterers, clearing wet shavings from around the water stations, as much poop as i could find from the bedding and replacing with fresh shavings. One of my cockerels was particularly excited to see me digging around and always came to investigate, all the babies were interested in the bottom of the box they lived in and checked out the bare areas during cleaning. Once dry shavings went in, the crazy dust bath parties began!
One last thing, remember to take lots of photos! they really do grow up fast!
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