One major difference between raising ducklings and raising chicks is their water preferences. Ducks drink a lot of water, way more than chickens, and they love to splash, play around, and make a mess.
We manage our ducklings water use by allowing them limited bath time in deeper water to play and clean themselves, and with “nipple” waterers for drinking. These are the same devices we used for our last batch of chickens, and they work just as well for ducks.
They are kind of shy.
One addition that we put in place for the ducks is a raised platform that’s covered in 1/2 inch hardware cloth. Under this platform is a drip pan to catch the water that our messy ducklings still manage to waste. This keeps their entire area drier which helps with odors, and means less changing of bedding.
The hardware cloth lets any wasted water fall through to the drip pan.
We are already brainstorming an expanded version of this system for when we increase our flock size and use an old outbuilding as our new brood house/farrowing pen.
For now though, we dump the pan of water about once a day, and swap out waterers whenever they are empty. Next up, a protected outdoor brooder where we can acclimatize these guys to outside life! We want to get them out there much quicker than the chickens!
*Don’t forget to pre-order your GMO-Free Heritage Turkey for Thanksgiving!