Mama Mills
In the Brooder
- May 4, 2024
- 4
- 20
- 31
Hello all and thank you in advance for any advise! We received our two female Silver Appleyard ducks on Thursday and are in the process of constructing their home. We hope to add more ducks later in the summer. I have a few questions on how to best care for them...
- I'm feeing them fermented Scratch and Peck organic starter with added nutritional yeast and some tiny rocks/dirt from our yard. The bag says to feed ducklings the starter feed until they are 4 weeks old and then switch. If I'm not mistaken, I've read online multiple times that they should switch from start feed at 2 weeks, what should I do? Also - I've been providing food around the clock, at some point do I need to moderate how much food they are given? We do plan on letting them free range our yard for chunks of time during the day.
- We purchased an 8 x 8 producers pride poultry pen from Tractor Supply for their run. We just dug out the bottom slightly and plan to add a layer of hard wear cloth ziptied to the pen, followed by a layer of sand, pea gravel and rubber mats. When winter comes I'm thinking we could remove the mats, lay down a thick layer of hay and switch to the deep litter method while it's cold/freezing and we can't hose things down as easily. Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Is there anything I'm overlooking?
- We have chicken wire on hand but not HW cloth. Would it be reasonable to use chicken wire under the coop to prevent predators from digging and use HW cloth along the bottom vertical sides or should it all be HW cloth?
- If the poultry pen is reinforced with HW cloth around the bottom 4' of the pen and HW cloth or CW is buried underneath, would it likely be safe to leave their duck house open over night? We are aiming for as low maintenance and high security as possible.
- I'm fermenting their food in a pint size mason jar. Taking out a few tablespoons several times a day to feed them and then adding a small amount of dry feed back in. What percentage for the fermented food should be removed and fed daily? Does it matter? Can I just keep this cycle continuous?
Thanks again so much!!
Below: Strawberry and Waffles
- I'm feeing them fermented Scratch and Peck organic starter with added nutritional yeast and some tiny rocks/dirt from our yard. The bag says to feed ducklings the starter feed until they are 4 weeks old and then switch. If I'm not mistaken, I've read online multiple times that they should switch from start feed at 2 weeks, what should I do? Also - I've been providing food around the clock, at some point do I need to moderate how much food they are given? We do plan on letting them free range our yard for chunks of time during the day.
- We purchased an 8 x 8 producers pride poultry pen from Tractor Supply for their run. We just dug out the bottom slightly and plan to add a layer of hard wear cloth ziptied to the pen, followed by a layer of sand, pea gravel and rubber mats. When winter comes I'm thinking we could remove the mats, lay down a thick layer of hay and switch to the deep litter method while it's cold/freezing and we can't hose things down as easily. Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Is there anything I'm overlooking?
- We have chicken wire on hand but not HW cloth. Would it be reasonable to use chicken wire under the coop to prevent predators from digging and use HW cloth along the bottom vertical sides or should it all be HW cloth?
- If the poultry pen is reinforced with HW cloth around the bottom 4' of the pen and HW cloth or CW is buried underneath, would it likely be safe to leave their duck house open over night? We are aiming for as low maintenance and high security as possible.
- I'm fermenting their food in a pint size mason jar. Taking out a few tablespoons several times a day to feed them and then adding a small amount of dry feed back in. What percentage for the fermented food should be removed and fed daily? Does it matter? Can I just keep this cycle continuous?
Thanks again so much!!
Below: Strawberry and Waffles
