The Duck Thread

[SerendipityMama]

Boy, I found out about this the hard way. I found one of my Pekins seizing yesterday morning. After doing all sorts of research, I came upon the niacin, so I picked up some capsules and sprinkled one into 4 gallons of water. I found an article from Metzer farms on this. Now all my duckling and goslings (gee they grow fast!) are on regular food, which is higher in niacin, but I'll probably still add to the water for a little while.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Boy, I found out about this the hard way. I found one of my Pekins seizing yesterday morning. After doing all sorts of research, I came upon the niacin, so I picked up some capsules and sprinkled one into 4 gallons of water. I found an article from Metzer farms on this. Now all my duckling and goslings (gee they grow fast!) are on regular food, which is higher in niacin, but I'll probably still add to the water for a little while.

Wow glad you did your research. Keep them on the plain niacin until 10 weeks old. Hope your lil one is okay.

 

[mama2girlies]

Good advice has already been given about going slow with integration, but I wanted to address the shaking, biting actions you described...

In my experience it is not actually an aggression sign, good or bad... I think @Tevyes Dad is the one who called it the "I'm gonna do something crazy duck style" type sign...

From what I've seen, it's more of an excitement reaction... I've seen mine do it when they were presented with a bowl full of peas and they were trying to decide if they should eat slower an enjoy them or gobble them down before the others could eat their share...

I also had a Call that hatched out singly, and a week later a pair of Mallard/Rouens hatched out... the Call went all bity crazy and I had to keep them separate... a couple weeks later I had a pair of Calls hatch out and she did the same with them... so I had 3 'groups' to keep separate... once the Mallard/Rouens got 4x the first Calls size, they tried to pick on the pair of Calls and the first jumped to their defense and proceeded to accept the 2 as her flock...

All flocks have a pecking order, and when they're of a size to not be injured easily, they will work it out... we just have to watch out for those little ones, cuz they can get seriously hurt by bigger ones acting as if they're all the same size and age...

Hope this helps...

Edited cuz I can't spell on my phone, lol...

Thank you so much for your input. I actually have now seen a lot of this shaking when I am putting my younger pekins in with the older group. Sometimes a few of my older ones, and by older I mean just a couple of weeks, will try to peck the younger ones. I am still keeping the two younger pekins separate because they have a few feathers to grow out on their wings and I have noticed this is what the older ones are trying to peck on them when they are shaking and moving towards them. I have integrated new chicks into my chicken flock many times and never had this much trouble. Are ducks more aggressive with integration? Are females more aggressive than males or about the same? My chickens definitely all have their own positions in the order but I haven't quite discovered how ducks do this. It just seems they are harsher on the newbies. My other two babies have many weeks until they will be fully feathered and able to be integrated so I'm not only trying to move in these pekins into the group but then will have to do it again in a month or so. I just want all my ducky babies to get along

 

[Amiga]

I have been loving these photos!

 

[Amiga]

Thank you so much for your input. I actually have now seen a lot of this shaking when I am putting my younger pekins in with the older group. Sometimes a few of my older ones, and by older I mean just a couple of weeks, will try to peck the younger ones. I am still keeping the two younger pekins separate because they have a few feathers to grow out on their wings and I have noticed this is what the older ones are trying to peck on them when they are shaking and moving towards them. I have integrated new chicks into my chicken flock many times and never had this much trouble. Are ducks more aggressive with integration? Are females more aggressive than males or about the same? My chickens definitely all have their own positions in the order but I haven't quite discovered how ducks do this. It just seems they are harsher on the newbies. My other two babies have many weeks until they will be fully feathered and able to be integrated so I'm not only trying to move in these pekins into the group but then will have to do it again in a month or so. I just want all my ducky babies to get along

Ducks can be really rough on newer, smaller ducks. Not always, but they can.

I have heard and seen that drakes can be more of a challenge than females - not universally true, but again, it can be tough. Just depends on the ducks.

 

[gander007]

Boy, I found out about this the hard way. I found one of my Pekins seizing yesterday morning. After doing all sorts of research, I came upon the niacin, so I picked up some capsules and sprinkled one into 4 gallons of water. I found an article from Metzer farms on this. Now all my duckling and goslings (gee they grow fast!) are on regular food, which is higher in niacin, but I'll probably still add to the water for a little while.

I have been giving my birds hard boiled eggs for many decades as there is Niacin in the eggs and I always save the duck and geese eggs just for the raising of our webbed footed friends .

 

[Wobbles]

Pogo and Louie officially landed themselves in our big garden while we build a fence for drake camp at Shane's dad's house. Little brats. We gave them another chance to stay with the girls but once again found a mud covered over bred Little duck. They don't do that to Oakley, they are only rough with Little duck. So I have two very upset drakes pacing the garden. Pogo is calling to the girls and for about half an hour Oakley would call back to him, now she seems to be over it and is ignoring his calling. He tried to fly out but..he is a Rouen and can only get about a foot off the ground lol. Shane sang to him...Fat ducks can't fly haha!

 

[tracyjg]

I hope my ducks like there wheat. We got hit in a rain storm today.

 

[Debs Flock]

Pogo and Louie officially landed themselves in our big garden while we build a fence for drake camp at Shane's dad's house. Little brats. We gave them another chance to stay with the girls but once again found a mud covered over bred Little duck. They don't do that to Oakley, they are only rough with Little duck. So I have two very upset drakes pacing the garden. Pogo is calling to the girls and for about half an hour Oakley would call back to him, now she seems to be over it and is ignoring his calling. He tried to fly out but..he is a Rouen and can only get about a foot off the ground lol. Shane sang to him...Fat ducks can't fly haha!

 

[tracyjg]

My outside ducks or not happy today. It's miserable raining. Everything wet. Eggs or in doghouse . The eggs in the incubator going crazy because tape player went out and the fan by the incubator going sky high. It took all day. My partner brought home new fan for them. He also got a new tape player. I added a black rubber for roofing on top of bookshelves out side. But it's still muddy and all wet. If they want they can go in dog house and nest. Oh got rained on when I planted the wheat. It's still 80 in house with air on and it's raining eggs exposing left and right. These has not been a good hatch. Duck incubating eggs. I hope it gets better. My baby chicks and ducks hatch before these one got moved to bathroom to make room for ones in incubator . So separation and trying to integrate everyone. Yah I feel you guess same here it feels like winter again.