Duckin Around, Part 1: Basic Duckling Care

As many know, we've finally got farm animals here on the farm and things are expanding.  While I haven't gotten down to doing a proper update, I figure these posts will suffice to show you things are growing and changing here.  One of my most favorite recent additions have been our little flock of ducks, which grows steadily as we find more that we like.  

This post is just a basic rundown on care of ducklings, while sharing my photos of caring for my ducks.  Until we built an enclosure for them, we were just keeping them in this fish tank.  We tried keeping them in a box but the moist nature of ducks made that a bad idea.  We needed something waterproof, and it has the added bonus of keeping them out of reach of the dogs. 

Ducks are honestly pretty simple creatures, which is part of why I like them.  With proper food, water and a good environment to thrive will yield really happy and healthy birds.  Our eventual goal is to eat these birds and their eggs, although for now we are just focused on raising them and breeding them. 

They can get pretty dirty pretty quick in confined quarters, like these.  As you can see by these photos, things can get pretty crazy in the duck pen. 

I wake up every day to this sight, regardless of the state of the pen when I put them to bed.  Generally within 20 minutes they have soiled the water I put in for them, which is totally normal from my understanding.  They aren't meant to be kept in these small quarters and at this point they're only there at night. 

The ducks are funny in their behavoirs.  They're very friendly and social until they destory their pen, then they hide in the corner like shown in some of these photos until I come in from above and save their asses.

Its always a funny process because they like to attack me while I clean their cage, as they're frightened by the giant hand stealing their bedding. I always get a kick out of the males coming at me knipping. 

But once it's cleaned with new bedding, food and water they're happy as can be, for at least 20 minutes. 

So what do ducks need? 

For food they're pretty simple.  They'll eat:

seeds

corn

whole grains

bugs

fruit

veggies

moringa

grass

microgreens

fruit(mangoes!)

and bird feed.

There's a short list of things to avoid, worth mentioning: 

Citrus fruits

Spinach (both citrus and spinach interfere with calcium absorbsion)

Iceberg lettuce(BIG digestive problems)

Dry beans, uncooked or unsprouted.

They need plenty of water, I almost always give them a drinking bowl as well as one to play around in, although they don't distinguish between them like I do. 

Environment is pretty easy, all you need is a safe space away from harsh weather and preditors.  Many build coop style enclosures and this is the sort of thing we're keeping our ducks in currently.  During the days, they spend their days in a super simple chicken tractor with the baby chicks we have. 

So there you have it, the first bit in this Duckin' Around Series.  As they grown and develop, we'll update you here and here with our adventures.  Stay tuned and thanks for supporting, until next time!