The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Maria1969 on May 31, 2012, 10:47:25 am
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Hello All
My Cayuga duck is sitting on her eggs so Im guess we will have some new arrivals ;D in 28 days or so??
Could anyone please give me some basic info on the do's & dont's for both the male, female & ducklings as I am a total newbie.
They are in a large secure pen with a good size kids paddling pool, run and hut, do I need to provide furthern food other than corn & layers pellets??
Any advise would be great.
Many thanks in advance.
Maria
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Best to put the broody separate from the others especially near hatch. Ducks are generally pretty placid but particularly the drakes can attack the ducklings and kill them.
Ducks are not renowned for being good mothers but Cayuga's have a slightly better reputation than some. Ducks often get bored half way through and abandon the eggs so would wait and see before getting too excited.
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Please please please don't let your new ducklings anywhere near water that is more than a couple of inches deep, and certainly not a water container that they can't get out of. One of the most common causes of death in ducklings is drowning, would you believe, as they will only have their baby feathers that will not yet be waterproofed. There adult feathers will start appearing properly from around 6 weeks.
Hope this helps
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Hi
Thank you for the replies so far, we only have the pair of cayuga's but I will certainly remove the dad just before they hatch (if we get that far) and also the pool will be removed too as I had read about ducklings and drowning :0(
Any more advise would be great :0)
Many thanks
Maria
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The duckings will need chick crumbs to eat, you can get special ones for waterfowl but if you use chick crumbs it's essential to get ones without ACS or coccidiostat in them. Smallholder, for example, make chick crumbs without but Farmgate, for example, have ACS in.
I give my ducklings water to play in in a gravel tray (seed tray with no holes) and initially put a 2 flat stones one inside, one out, to make getting in and out easier.
You might want to see how the drake is - watch very closely - but my runner drakes and also my gander make good dads and protected their little families.