thanks so much - I'm letting Mama take care of her baby (there's only one so far) because she's just lost her mate. We've created an enclosure very near the house so I think they'll be safe. A duck listserv might find a lot of interest - myself included.
- fostering sustainable community through collaborative initiatives in hospitality, education and the arts, in the 150 year-old democratic spirit of the Danish Folk School --- On Fri, 6/13/08, Simon St.Laurent <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Simon St.Laurent <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] caring for baby ducks? > To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv" > <[email protected]> > Date: Friday, June 13, 2008, 2:24 PM > goodsell wrote: > > Caring for baby ducks is only slightly different than > caring for baby > > chicks. You should be able to get a game bird starter > at your local feed > > store. You might have to shop around if you're > looking for organic feed in > > particular. But game birds require a higher protein > level than chickens. > > Tractor Supply Company had a general chick formula that > included ducks, > which I used for a while, but I went to Game & Turkey > Starter, then > grower, then finisher/maintenance from Agway. Definitely > stay away from > feeds with antibiotics in them, and ducks need lots of > niacin, > apparently more than is in chicken feed. > > Definitely make sure they _always_ have water to drink. > (They don't > need to swim, but they definitely need to drink. > > > Keeping the chicks fed, watered, warm, clean, and safe > are your priorities > > especially with the threat of a predator eminent. > I'm not sure if you're > > planning on letting "mom" brood out her > chicks or taking the chicks and > > brooding them yourself. Your situation and your > decisions on how you wish to > > raise these little ones will depend how you should > proceed. > > I'm not sure what the current duck defensive situation > looks like, I've > been using electroplastic fence while working on building a > more > permanent home for my ducks. (I had 11, and gave a pair > away this > morning.) It keeps predators away really well, but your > ducklings might > be small enough to go through it, or worse, get stuck in > it. > > (I started with mail-order ducklings, so put them in a > brooder box, then > in a rabbit cage, and then in a fenced area. But they > didn't have a > mother to help them at all, so that was different. I hope > to start > raising our own ducks next year. I need to update it, but > you can get a > sense of what we did at: > > http://livingindryden.org/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=ducks&blog_id=15 > > ) > > I've been contemplating starting a Tompkins (or Finger > Lakes) ducks > mailing list - if there's interest, let me know. > > > Thanks, > Simon St.Laurent > http://simonstl.com/ > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins > County area, please visit: > http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
