Chicks AND Ducklings raised by Broody Silkies!

[Cool Chicky]

So I have a couple broody silkies who have been hatching eggs, plus I tucked a couple incubated chicks under them. My question…. There is a couple ducks in the mix and I’m struggling with what the best thing to do for food is? I can’t use medicated chick feed because of the ducklings, so I used duck & goose starter. Then realized that likely won’t work for the chicks, so my recent feed was just our basic unmedicated feed we feed to everyone on the daily. I put a little water and food in front of each mama, and they are doing amazing otherwise.

 

[BastyPutt]

A turkey/pheasant starter or anything along those lines is going to be good for everyone. There is minimal difference in all those starters.

We are raising some quail chicks at the moment as well as chicken chicks and feeding everyone game bird started crumble. Protein is about 5% higher, but is okay to begin wirh

 

[Cool Chicky]

Perfect! Thank you so much for the feedback We will have Guinea fowl in the mix soon as well lol.

 

[BastyPutt]

Perfect! Thank you so much for the feedback We will have Guinea fowl in the mix soon as well lol.

Guinea fowl you need to be far more cautious of when they are less than 2 weeks. Their digestive systems are far more sensitive.

In this case you'll want a turkey pheasant starter - unmedicated. They are also very prone to going nutrient deficient. Because if they feed troubles, we only go with a home made mixture of salt, sugar and water.
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup of warm water.

Stir and let it sit. For about 10 mins. Water should be as hot as your sink allows.

You can certainly give them nutridrench, but I am so hesitant to do anything outside of what I know for the guineas. They are so temperamental as keets.

Lastly, you will need to begin mental preparation for the guineas if you haven't already. They are a handful and the most idiotic animal in the kingdom. We have had them roaming the property for a few years now. They hatch clutches and do all that, essentially a wild animal at this point. But we do have requests for keets from townsfolk so we pull them when we see them and brood them for people. 99% of the time the mothers lack any sort of instinct and are completley incapable of raising a clutch of chicks. Granted, one hen will sit on the communities eggs and hatch them, while a cock "stands guard". So she will be running around with 40+ keets in tow, destined for death unless a human intervenes.

They are absolutely priceless though with their ability to keep down entire insect populations and walk through a garden eating only weeds. They are irreplaceable here.