Raising ducks

[Bow Hunter Derek]

OK, let me preface this by saying, I can't stand it when I walk into a store and see bunnies, chicks, and ducks for sale at Easter time. 99% of them end up dead by the end of the first week after Easter.

Now that this is off my chest. My in-laws bought my girls and thier 6 month old cousin, three baby ducks for Easter. The last thing I need are ducks, BUT I'm not about to let the things simply die. I'm going to give it my best effort to keep the things alive until they can be turned loose on the farm pond.

So, my question is, can anyone give me advise as to keeping them alive and how old they have to be before they can fend for themselves out in the yard? I've got them in a small animal cage with bedding, a feeder, and waterer. I put a heating pad under the cage to keep it warm for them. I've got to admitt, they are cute and my girls did well yesterday getting them used to being handled. My yellow lab (trained to hunt ducks of course) did not like having them around at all.

I assume once they are big enough to go outside and to the pond, I need to clip thier wings so they stay at home. How often do I have to do that?

My only experience with ducks has been at the end of the bead on my 12 ga.

[Bruce Schmeck]

Re: Raising ducks

They should be mighty tasty once they get big enough.

I agree, people shouldn't give gifts like that unless they run it by the recipients parents first. The ducks should grow pretty fast and be able to fend for the mselces in about a month or month and a half.

The kids might never be old enough to fend for themselves. Trust me, I see alot of them these days.

[dogdoc]

Re: Raising ducks

Derek---if you want to permanently keep them from flying then I would recommend Pinioning--this is very easy to do (but a little bloody) on very young ducks.

Trimming back the primary flight feathers is another option but must be done after every molt--and if you forget they could fly away. More than likely they won't after the imprint on your area but it is possible.

Here is a link explaining both procedures.

http://www.poultryconnection.com/quackers/clip-3.html

todd

[Turkeygirl]

Re: Raising ducks

Derek, get a heat lamp or one of those lights you can clip on to something and put it above them to keep them warm, will probably work better than a heating pad; that's what we do at least. If you haven't already, get some chick starter food. It'll say chick but baby ducks can eat it also. Our ducks we raised can't really fly that well anyway. I think because they are domestic andn ot wild, all they can do is maybe run and get up a foot in the air for a second, that's about it, but trimming the primary feathers works fine. Raising the ducks as babies, you shouldn't have to worry about them leaving home. Once you get them out on the pond, You could build a small shed/doghouse type thing for them to go in or even have a small fence around it to keep them in at night. I'm not sure if you have foxes/coyotes around but we do so we keep them in a pen at night. We don't have a pond so we have a small plastic kiddie pool for them. Once they get a little bigger so they don't drown, you can give them a dishpan of water in their cage/small pen to go in. Ducks need water to help them get their food down. I hope this helps. Feel free to pm me with any questions. We had 6 ducks and they layed eggs, hatched them, and then we butchered the youngins. We were back to 4 females and 2 males but about 1.5 weeks ago a fox took a chicken and a female and 2 male ducks so all we have are 3 females. Good luck!

[Guest Andrea]

Re: Raising ducks

LOL...............wanna have some fun???? Take them into the bathroom and put them in the tub. Turn on the shower with luke warm water very lightly. THEY LOVE IT!!! Then after they've played around, fill the tub with about 3 or 4 inches of water and watch them dart back and forth under water. ( When we used to have ducks...we did this. I never laughed so hard.

[007hunter]

Re: Raising ducks

I assume you live in the country if you have a pond. If you clip there wings you will have dead ducks within a year if you let them run loose. Ducks have many predators, owls, hawks, coons, foxes, coyotes and even possums if they can get a hold of them when they are young. If you do clip their wings I would suggest building a secure house for them and locking them up for the night and letting them run loose during the day. Owls and hawks would have a hard time taking a mature duck but I wouldn't put it past them. By locking them up securely at night will greatly reduce the chance that fox or other predator will get them. A barn will work also but wouldnt be as secure. The ducks we had, we trained them to go into a house we built for them at night. Good luck!

[archerjg]

Re: Raising ducks

There is a couple fo ways to do this. A large rabbit cage works the best. Put a heat lamp at one end and cover that part of the cage with aluminum foil leave the aother end open so that the ducklings can go to that end when they are too hot. They will adjust their own temperatures to suit. As long as they are quiet they are comfortable. Put some cedar shavings in the bottom of the cage and get a small dish to feed them out of. Also get a waterer for the babies and fill it. Any local farm supply store will have these items. You are also going to want to get a start and grow mix or some food for small game babies. Get the non medicated as sometimes the medicated will cause some babies to die. Once they get a couple of months old they will be able to take care of themselves, however they will not have the wild instincts and will be used to being fed so they will have a hard timer surviving on their own unless you trim the pinion feathers and keep them around the pond and keep feeding them. We raise mallard ducks and they by no means have enough wild instinct to be able to survive in the wild. A large covered pen built by the pond where they can swim and play will work just fine and keep most predators out.

Archerjg

[Bow Hunter Derek]

Re: Raising ducks

Thanks for the advise all.

Well, two days into it and the ducks are still alive so we must be doing all right.

I have them in a small rabbit cage that I had from years ago. They have bedding material, a waterer and feeder. When my in-laws got them, they got a large bag of chick food. The heating pad seems to be keeping them warm. The snuggle up together at that end of the cage and are keeping relatively quiet, so they must be happy. Man they eat and poop A LOT!

They are kind of funny, you open the cage and they come running out to you. They are even starting to follow my girls around a little.

The girls did the bath tub trick with them last night, I guess they had a blast.