Re: When can baby ducklings leave mum?

On Aug 14, 4:04 am, " Jill" <n...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
cmcca...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Wat?...I take every chick or duckling away from the mother as soon as
they hatch. You run less risk of the mother tramping them or killing
them in any way.

You also have much more work to do.
The birds have to be indoors for longer, so do not benefit from the outdoor
environment so quickly, which includes good ranging feeding as well as an
improved immune system.

They also seem to have a better chance of survival
under a bulb in a small box,

And just as much chance of something going wrong catastrophically -- too
wet, too chilled, powercut, wrong feeding, etc

 and as they get older move them into a

bigger box with less heat. That way your duck will lay hatch more and
you will have more ducklings!

That depends entirely on the genetics of the duck. Some will only lay x
number of eggs whatever happens.

My point is that both methods have merits and both have pitfalls.
Raising youngsters with broodies can be equally successful as artificial.
And they can both fail.
If you have found your way works for you, that is great, but it does not
make it the only way.

--
regards
Jill Bowis

Domestic Poultry and Waterfowl Solutions
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine Nursery
Seasonal Farm Foodhttp://www.kintaline.co.uk

Jill is correct.If you are giving the ducklings to others its best to
wait until they get their first feathers (with muscovies thats about a
month old) Duck moms are like people moms, some just arent cut out for
it while others would keep the ducklings until they were a year
old.When you have a hatch if you took one baby from the clutch to
raise you will see mom can grow them at twice the rate you can; her
babies are out in cool weather while your duckling has a fit when it
drops 5 degrees; and taking care of something that seems to be able to
poop its own body weight in 24 hours is something you really dont want
to have to do if you can avoid it :) I try my best to leave them with
mom. One tip with babies hand feed them treats;
grapes,watermelon,greens, or bread you can make a much friendlier
adult duck that way.
.