Day old duckling prices?

[Paddington]

Looking to raise a few meat ducks just for our own use, the prices online seem silly £5 to £10 per bird (Aylesbury or Aylesbury cross). Is there a more average price ?

 

[Lili]

DIY - Incubator/broody and some eggs?

 

[Anymulewilldo]

DIY - Incubator/broody and some eggs?

Have a go at this

Ducklings are p!ss easy too rear compared too just about everything else!

 

[TexelBen]

Have a go at this

Ducklings are p!ss easy too rear compared too just about everything else!

What they like to look after day to day? I've heard they're a bit simple
Got a few chickens, eggs are selling well, got some copper blacks in the incubator. Was thinkin of some Cayuga ducks for nice dark eggs to sell too

 

[Anymulewilldo]

What they like to look after day to day? I've heard they're a bit simple
Got a few chickens, eggs are selling well, got some copper blacks in the incubator. Was thinkin of some Cayuga ducks for nice dark eggs to sell too

Oh they are!! Really simple. They really don’t look for much else other than food and lots of water! ducklings are probably the most hilarious thing I reared as a kid. 400 ducklings with a 1-2% mortality too 12 weeks. Verses 400 pheasants with 8-10% mortality too 8 weeks! Ducklings are ace, you just need to have somewhere dry for them coz they could turn the Sahara into a sh!thole!

 

[TexelBen]

Oh they are!! Really simple. They really don’t look for much else other than food and lots of water! ducklings are probably the most hilarious thing I reared as a kid. 400 ducklings with a 1-2% mortality too 12 weeks. Verses 400 pheasants with 8-10% mortality too 8 weeks! Ducklings are ace, you just need to have somewhere dry for them coz they could turn the Sahara into a sh!thole!

What are they like as adults? How do they differ from chooks?

 

[twizzel]

Messy buggers but good fun to keep. I stopped hatching out after I ended up with ducklings in my hallway escaping and running amok buy them older now, just keep them for their eggs. Price wise I’ve just reserved a few month old Aylesbury type females for £12 each.

 

[Ukjay]

Just dont get Call Ducks - friking things are noisy as hell.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Just dont get Call Ducks - friking things are noisy as hell.

Made that mistake once... gave them away the following week!

 

[Anymulewilldo]

What are they like as adults? How do they differ from chooks?

Brilliant too watch as adults. They are just as simple as grown ducks as they are ducklings! They are buggers for turning wet patches into huge bogs though given the chance. I really enjoyed the Aylesburys. Just big and soft. Khaki Campbell’s were good too on the egg front. I was given an adult magpie duck (she was an Aylesbury cross) she would set off in a morning with a couple of hundred half grown ducklings behind her too the little pond in the back field. She never stopped quacking too them all day. Then led most of them back again in the evening. Just had too wander the last few real dimwits in.

Had her for 3 years when a bloody badger took her out of the orchard one October when all the youngsters had gone!

 

[spin cycle]

Looking to raise a few meat ducks just for our own use, the prices online seem silly £5 to £10 per bird (Aylesbury or Aylesbury cross). Is there a more average price ?

could give piggotts poultry a ring ..they sell khaki campbell layer type females for £4....but might sell you some males 'cheap'...or 'quack' .....not meat ducks i appreciate

 

[Ukjay]

Made that mistake once... gave them away the following week!

Frikin things are driving me bonkers. The women of the house won't let me get rid of them...
Got two bloody Cockrels too - bloody racket..

 

[TripleSix]

Cheep?

 

[Ukjay]

Cheep?

They don't go cheep

 

[Cab-over Pete]

My daughter has a few, fantastic things to watch when small. They are absolutely manic, racing about, and as soon as they see water the chaos ramps up tenfold! Brilliant fun.

She’s only had one with any bother. It kept having a kind of fit, quite distressing. Someone said it was a protein imbalance problem and to give them a bit of kitten meat. It was that or I put it out of its misery. They lapped it up in seconds and there was no bother after that. She fed a spoon full to 4 ducklings about once a week, no more bother.

As said, anywhere they go is a filthy hole in no time. We’re finding that coarse wood chip is a good surface to keep them drier.

 

[Treg]

My daughter has a few, fantastic things to watch when small. They are absolutely manic, racing about, and as soon as they see water the chaos ramps up tenfold! Brilliant fun.

She’s only had one with any bother. It kept having a kind of fit, quite distressing. Someone said it was a protein imbalance problem and to give them a bit of kitten meat. It was that or I put it out of its misery. They lapped it up in seconds and there was no bother after that. She fed a spoon full to 4 ducklings about once a week, no more bother.

As said, anywhere they go is a filthy hole in no time. We’re finding that coarse wood chip is a good surface to keep them drier.

It's a B12 deficiency, can buy tablets at local chemists & drop in ducklings water.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

Ok, thanks, we’ll know in future.

They loved the kitten food though!

 

[Paddington]

Years ago we hatched some eggs under a bantam, one of which was a duck egg so we had six chicks and a duckling. We tried introducing the young drake to water in a paddling pool without success, it was terrified of water, a rabid duck was all we needed. Bought a duck to keep him company, but she chased him round the garden before going onto the pond. Next day drake and duck were swimming on the pond together as if nothing had happened.

 

[LuckyEleven]

As said they need Niacin/B12 which is not normally found in large enough quantities in chick starter, Brewers yeast is a good substitute

 

[Paddington]

Read somewhere that we shouldn't feed ACS chick crumbs to ducklings, is this true ? We have always fed them to chicks.