Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Basics, for instructions on where to put the light. Now your young waterfowl's brooder
is established and you can place the newly arrived babies in their first home.
Food and Water … and Play!
Provide a no-drown waterer and a pan of feed. If the ducklings arrived in the mail, make
sure to dip their bills in the water and then allow them to have free access to the water
only for the first few minutes after you put them in the brooder. Take the water out and
replace it only after 15 to 20 minutes. Repeat the process every 15 minutes or so. This
will prevent them from overindulging on the water and becoming ill. Goslings have the
most trouble with this sort of gorging.
After about an hour, you can leave the water in the brooder and then stand back and
enjoy the excitement the young waterfowl exude about their water and feed. The first
few days are your honeymoon period when the birds are well behaved and not terribly
messy. At about three days of age they become super slobs, making a horrible mess as
they move their bills from the food to the water and back and forth. Ducklings are the
most disorderly, but goslings give them a run for their money.
Be sure to provide your baby ducks and geese with a waterer that is deep enough for
them to dip in and rinse their nostrils. Nostril rinsing is necessary for prevention of up-
per respiratory disease. Do not expect ducks to be able to swim until they are four to five
weeks old, however. Kiddy pools are a lethal feature of a waterfowl situation until the
birds have developed oil glands (see box on next page).
Second Home
Once the birds reach 10 days of age you will be ready to move them elsewhere. I like
to put them in a metal tier brooder for another week or so, but they can just as easily be
placed in their future home shed. See
chapter 2
, Housing and Supplies, for a shed design
easily adapted for duck and gosling use.
Flooring
A concrete floor makes it easy to clean up waterfowl litter when the flat little feet pat it
down and make a wet, thick manure-and-litter mess. You can easily use a scoop shovel
and lift the packed litter and manure as you would lift a pancake with a spatula. Concrete
also allows for easy washing with a hose and disinfectant between batches of waterfowl.
Dirt also works fine for flooring as it allows for drainage and the litter stays drier for a
longer period of time. You can still lift the litter, but it is easier to use a pitchfork on a
dirt floor instead of a scoop shovel.
