Raising Ducks
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Duckling diary
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and please note:
The duckling diaries
Raising ducks: day one
Cheep!
May 21, 2002: The ducklings arrive via U.S. Mail from
Clearview Hatchery in Gratz, Pennsylvania. Most hatcheries have larger
minimum orders, but Clearview would send us as few as six, which is what
we wanted. Well, ok: they only charged us for six, but they sent an extra
duckling. Number Seven is not marked, so we're guessing it is female,
but when we may find ourselves with a drake when their feathers come in.
Until then, there's no reliable way for an amateur to tell.
The post office was supposed to call when
the ducklings arrived so I could go and pick them up, but they may have
called while I was checking email and the line was busy, so in the middle
of the afternoon a special-delivery mail car pulled into the driveway.
When I went outside the driver called out, "I bring you good tidings
of great joy!" No, I am not making this up. He had never delivered
poultry before and was more excited than I was, I think—our post
office is in west Durham and most of its routes are fairly urban. I opened
the box, which was about 12"x14" and weighed less than styrofoam
peanuts, in the driveway to make sure the ducklings were all there and
ok before the mailman left.
I had been a little nervous about ordering
ducklings through the mail, but people have been doing it this way for
decades, and it is often the only way to get rare breeds of poultry (which
means nearly any breed of duck). Just before ducklings and chicks hatch,
they absorb the rest of the yolk from their egg, and that sustains them
for a day or two. And I was very happy with the job done by both Clearview
Hatchery and the Postal Service. (I know that for people who raise poultry
this is pretty mundane stuff, but I am still amazed at how smoothly and
efficiently it all went.)
Once inside I set them in the baby pool (read about our brooder
setup), turned on the heat lamp, and gave them food and water. Everything
we had read said that you should dunk their bills gently in the water
to make sure they find it, so I did, one by one, and one by one they all
got annoyed and scurried to the far side of the pool. They found the water,
and the food, on their own a minute later, and they warmed up quickly.
Later in the evening I chopped up a few
leaves of spinach finely and floated them in a dish of water. The ducklings
absolutely loved this, which is good, because in a month when they move
outside we want them to forage and eat vegetable scraps from the kitchen.
For the moment, about all they do is eat, drink, sleep, and poop, but
they are already noticeably stronger than they were when they arrived.
They also spend a bit of time milling about and trying to preen themselves—I
say "trying" because if they aren't careful doing it they tend
to fall over. Occasionally one will get "the crazies" and run
a lap around the perimeter of the pool, and a few of the others will follow.
On one lap the whole group went together. They are amazingly quick for
their size.
They also immediately tried to swim in the
dish of water I used for their greens. You would have to say they took
to it like, well, a duck to water.
Click any of the photos below for a larger image.
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One
of the ducklings on her first evening at the Halfway Homestead.
Next: The first week
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