Category — Critters

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Critter Queries

Q. How old are chickens when they go broody?

Q. Can I keep chickens in the garden?

Q. How long should my runner duck sit on her eggs?

Q. How old are Indian Runner ducks when they lay eggs?

Home and Health

Q. Can i put straight apple cider vinegar (ACV) in my ear?

Q. Can I leave ACV in my hair?

Q. Do the voices in my head bother you?

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I know what you’re thinking, “Oh no, not another post about ducks!” I’m sorry this is what I wanted to write about today. It’s better than not writing at all! So, if your thinking of getting some ducks, here’s a few things that come to mind about their care.

Ducks are quite easy to care for and keep healthy. They are naturally disease resistant. Much more so than chickens. They need security from predators at all times as they have no effective defenses of their own. Predators may include raccoons, foxes, and hawks, dogs and cats.

Ducklings have no natural oils and when incubated they don’t have any oil from the mother duck so their feathers can become water logged. For ducklings water for swimming should be very shallow and easy to get out of. Full sized adolescent ducks have died from exposure because they couldn’t get out of a kiddie pool. I am using a lid from a large plastic tote. If you tilt it a little it even has a deep end and a shallow end.

A small group of adult ducks would only need a mortar mixing pan or kiddie pool to have enough to swim in and keep their feathers clean. A pond is not necessary. They need water deep enough to rinse their entire head to keep their eyes and nostrils clear .

In addition, they need room to forage and exercise. They need plenty of areas to look for bugs as well as to eat the grass itself. Access to shade is a must year-round. And they need a dry place to sleep at night that is predator proof and protected from wind, but not too air-tight.

Runner ducks love the cold but must be able to get out of the wet when needed. They should have plenty of clean dry straw to nest on and lay their eggs. The straw helps to keep the eggs clean. Ducks tend to keep their mess around their water. So if you keep their water a distance from their nest it will be easier to keep it clean.  They always always need water with their food.

I feed ducklings a home mix of starter feed. I also supplement their diet with milk, yogurt, scrambled eggs, veggies, chicken scratch, oatmeal and other goodies.
Home Mix Starter Feed
Corn Meal
Bone Meal
Chopped Alfalfa
Kelp Powder
Wheat Germ
Wheat Bran

They are free range so they forage all day for grubs, worms and insects.

Ducks should not be fed medicated chicken food (their livers do not process it as well as chickens). In my opinion chickens should not be fed medicated food either.

The long awaited day has come! Yesterday, the duck eggs started hatching. By bedtime we had 4 ducklings. There was one more when I went down to check them this morning. I’ll give the remaining 2 eggs until Sunday to see if they hatch.

Red looked up at me like, “Are these really mine? No wonder it took so long. Man, I’ve been sitting on these eggs for 28 days!” That’s a long time to sit in one spot with only periodic leg stretches and bathroom breaks.
The ducklings look very healthy. They are sticking close to Mama Red and the nest. I have given them fresh water and a home mix of starter feed. In the days to come I’ll be supplementing their diet with milk, yogurt, scrambled eggs, grubs, worms, insects and some other goodies.
Home Mix Starter Feed
Corn Meal
Bone Meal
Chopped Alfalfa
Kelp Powder
Wheat Germ
Wheat Bran

The eggs came from the mating pair of Indian Runners we got from Pat. She told me that they had the genes for producing offspring of all colors.

I apologize for the poor photos. If you click on them you’ll get a better view. I hope to post some better ones this weekend. They’re so cute!

A few months ago I mentioned that Red, one of our hens, went broody. She sat in the nest box for several days without leaving. When we opened the lid to take a peek she would growl and hiss at us. These were the signs that she wanted to become a mama. We have been wanting to hatch some eggs. This was the opportunity we had been waiting for. I had just recently read a highly informative article called Working with Broody Hens:Let Mama Do It by Harvey Ussery. We decided to give it a try.

On April 9, 2009 we fixed her a brood box in the outer coop where we could isolate her from the other chickens. Placing 10 new eggs on the nest we moved her in. There she sat for 20 days. Getting up only 1 or 2 times to eat, drink and relieve herself. The eggs started hatching on Wednesday night the 29th. By the next day, 7 of the 10 eggs had successfully hatched. They were all black. The same color as the dominant rooster, LB.

Red and her chicks stayed in the brood box for a few days, but it wasn’t long before she had them out foraging for food. At first we supplied the bulk of their diet. Not wanting to give them commercial chick starter, we provided a variety of foods. Scrambled eggs and milk was a favorite. We ground sunflower seeds, oatmeal, oat groats, corn, wheat berries and lentils, with flax seeds and kelp added to the mix.

The chicks favorite food had to be grub worms. We were in the process of planting our garden. As we dug, we collected the grubs in a jar then fed them to the chicks.

As they grew older, they gradually started to venture farther away from Mama Red. At five weeks of age Red let her babies go and she rejoined the flock.

They are now 11 weeks old. They have their own chicken “click”. It looks like we might have 3 cockerals and 4 pullets. Two of the cockerals look like they came from our Barred Rock hen Barbie. One of them has started to crow. It’s too hard to tell which hen the rest of them came from.

During this time we had 3 roosters. LB was a black Jersey Giant, Rocky was a red rooster of unknown breed and Johnny was…well were just not sure if Johnny knew what he was.

At first, being the oldest, Rocky was the dominant roo. He was very good to the hens. He was gentle, protecting and always gave them first choice at whatever food he found.

As LB grew older and larger he soon took over the number one spot. We noticed that he was too rough with the hens. Some started to get bald spots on their backs and were afraid of him. We knew LB had to go. Johnny was not far behind.

So, Rocky was back and better than before. Just in time too because Bent Wattle, one of the Wyandottes, went broody. On June 6 we gave her 9 eggs to sit on. After 20 days she had hatched 8 babies. There were 7 of various shades of cream and 1 black. I named them the chipmonk chicks cause they had a stripe pattern down their backs like a chipmonk.

Soon after the chicks hatched Rocky got sick and died. It was a sad day. We were very fond of him and miss him. But he lives on in the new chicks. We hope one of them grows into a good leader like he was.

We have all learned from the new chicks. It was a first for all of us. The great thing about all this was that Mama Hen did it all. She sat on the eggs, helped them hatch, protected the chicks and taught them to forage for food. We just helped her a little along the way.

We have at least 3 laying now. 2 Wyandottes and 1 Ameracauna. One is giving us double yokes  & one is giving us green eggs. [Read more →]