Preparing the duck house for ducklings

As a fun birthday activity yesterday, I spent the afternoon cleaning out the duck house and setting it up for ducklings, plus building a ramp for their swimming pool. Read on for more on that.

Firstly, a shot from the duck house camera of before cleaning it out:

Duck house before cleaning out

Here’s the duck house with open doors, while I was cleaning it out (and a cameo of Bert on the island):

Duck house with open doors

Empty duck house; I also removed the inner floor, a second floor layer that I made on the theory that it’d make it easier to clean out, by pulling it out like a drawer. But I never did that, since that’d freak out the ducklings, and stuff would fall down the back anyway, and it was easy enough to clean out without that:

Empty duck house

Me sitting in the duck house, adding hooks to arrange wires:

David in the duck house

I repaired and re-added the feeder tube, a new Brinsea EcoGlow brooder, a new heat lamp, duckling feeder, and shelf liner for grippy flooring (for the first couple of weeks):

Outfitted duck house

The Brinsea EcoGlow is a heating plate on adjustable-height legs that ducklings can go under like a mother duck, giving them intimate warmth. I put it in one of the nesting boxes, to further that impression:

Brinsea EcoGlow

I also added a new ceramic heat lamp; unlike previous ones I’ve used, this doesn’t emit any light, and should last much longer, while using less power:

Heat lamp

I added the temporary barriers to close the vents above the maintenance door, to help retain more warmth:

Closed vents

Next, I went to the workshop and made a ramp to make it easier for the ducklings to get into the paint tray I use as a swimming pool. Here are some routed sides for the ramp:

Ramp sides

And some rough routing of traction grooves:

Ramp traction

The completed ramp, next to the tray:

Ramp

Underside of the ramp; it hooks onto the handle of the tray:

Underside of ramp

Ramp:

Ramp

The ramp and tray in the duck house. I will remove it before adding the ducklings, as they won’t be ready to use it until about the third week, and only for brief supervised swims initially, but good to have it ready now:

Ramp in duck house

The duck house is now almost ready for the new ducklings, arriving in just over a week. The last steps are to fill the food and water dispensers, remove the tray and ramp, and turn the heat back on (I tested them for a few hours today):

Duck house

I also changed the LED light strip to red, as seen in this cam shot; red is a more soothing color for ducklings (and chicks):

Red light in duck house

Stay tuned for lots of pictures of ducklings in just over a week!

Ducklings!

An exciting day: today I picked up the new ducklings from the local post office.

As I always do, I strapped the box of ducklings in the car seat for the ride home:

Box of ducklings in car

Here are the ducklings huddled together in the box:

Ducklings in the box

The list of ducklings we purchased:

List of ducklings

And care and identification info on the back:

Duckling info

I carefully lifted each duckling out of the box, and dipped their bill in the water, to show them how to drink:

Adding duckling

Adding ducklings

They all figured it out quickly, and were unsurprisingly thirsty, having never had water to drink before (they survive on hatching stores and some gel in the box during transit):

Ducklings drinking

They’re too small to need bricks under the waterer yet (that’ll change!), so I moved it directly to the floor:

Ducklings

I added a feeder, and sprinkled some food on some bricks so they could see it. Here’s the first one to eat:

First duckling eating

The others caught on:

Ducklings

Then figured out that the feeder had lots more available:

Ducklings eating

Ducklings

Ducklings eating

They tilt their heads back when drinking:

Duckling drinking

More eating:

Ducklings

Checking on them a couple of hours later. About 90° F (32° C) under the heat lamp; they are on the edge of that, so seem comfortable:

Ducklings

A couple of hours later after that, more eating and drinking:

Ducklings

Brace yourself for daily duckling pictures for the next few weeks. They grow quickly!

(Plus, of course, the usual Flock Friday post of Bert and the chickens; I’ll keep posts about them separate, at least for now.)

Ducklings day 2

Welcome to day two of the ducklings. They’ve settled into their routine: eat, drink, poop, scamper, sleep, and grow. That’s the life of a duckling, at least for the first couple of weeks.

Here they are when I first opened the top of the maintenance door; lots more poop than yesterday!

Ducklings

I built the aforementioned doors with a handy design with four doors, where I can open just one for a quick peek, the top two to let me access inside without the ducklings getting out, the left two if I need to get inside quickly, or all four for full access.

Here you can see the top two doors open, and the bottom two closed, with a glimpse of the ducklings and Bert:

Ducklings and duck

I moved the EcoGlow out of the nesting box, since they didn’t seem to want to go under it in there. We’ll see if this place is any better:

Ducklings

They did go under it, though not for long:

Ducklings

Eating and drinking:

Ducklings

We’ll remove the leg bands in the next day or two. Those indicate the breeds and sexes of the ducklings. So in the meantime, I want to determine markings so I can identify them. The Buff female is of course obvious, being unique. The Blue Swedish ones are fairly distinct: those are the ones with light gray backs and yellow chests. The one with the red band is the male; I notice he has a more yellow chest and foot, too:

Ducklings

The Buff under the EcoGlow:

Ducklings

A disappointment is that we ended up with two male Rouen ducklings, as seen here; notice they both have green bands on their right legs, indicating they are both male. We had wanted one of each sex. Not sure if we’ll try to get a couple females to balance that, or live with it:

Ducklings

Another shot showing the Blue Swedish in the center of the picture, female on the left, male on the right:

Ducklings

Drinking:

Ducklings

Checking out a nesting box:

Ducklings

A male Khaki Campbell:

Ducklings

The male Khaki Campbell on the left, the female on the right (plus the Buff shaking her head); telling the former two apart is a bit trickier; I haven’t noticed obvious differences yet. I’ll have to take a closer look at them:

Ducklings

The two Blue Swedish again:

Ducklings

More pics again tomorrow!

Ducklings day 3

Some trauma for day 3: today we removed the leg bands from the male ducklings (the females didn’t have bands).

Here are the ducklings when I first arrived in the morning:

Ducklings

An animated GIF of synchronized duckling drinking:

GIF of ducklings drinking

A couple of pictures around noon, after removing their leg bands; they were feeling rather hesitant about us after that:

Ducklings

And some afternoon rounds pictures:

Ducklings

A view from a nesting box:

Ducklings

Still avoiding me (they’ll get over it, especially once I introduce treats):

Ducklings

Ducklings day 4

I didn’t spend much time with the ducklings today, as I was busy with another project (more on that another day), but I did get a few pictures during morning and afternoon rounds.

The usual first opening the door shot; the poop is building up, time to clean it out a bit and add some bedding:

Ducklings

On afternoon rounds; looks like the Buff has discovered the feeder tube:

Afternoon ducklings

Drinking:

Ducklings

Eating:

Ducklings

Ducklings day 5

Today in the duck house, I captured some interesting EcoGlow interactions, plus added some straw bedding.

Here’s a shot from the duck house cam showing the ducklings actually using the EcoGlow heater for a substantial amount of time; the first time I’ve seen that. Maybe that means it was too high before, and they’ve grown into it? The red light helps keep them more calm.

Ducklings under EcoGlow

An animated GIF of a duckling drinking, going under the EcoGlow, then jumping on top of it:

GIF of ducklings

A shot of the duckling on the EcoGlow:

Duckling on EcoGlow

The usual picture of the ducklings when I first opened the door this morning (the light is still red, but the sunlight coming in the open door overwhelms that):

Ducklings

Definitely time for some bedding. I just added a thin partial layer of straw bedding for now (the ducklings hid in the back nesting box while I added that):

Added some bedding

Later I will add more, and in due course will remove the shelf liner layer from the floor, once they’re more steady on their feet.

The ducklings were very curious about the straw:

Ducklings exploring

Ducklings

Afternoon visit:

Ducklings

Cutely watching me:

Ducklings

Ducklings day 6

Today, Bert and the ducklings saw each other.

But first, some cam shots; last night, a duckling went on the EcoGlow again (probably the same one, showing an adventurous personality):

Duckling on EcoGlow

Ducklings sleeping:

Ducklings sleeping

Ducklings drinking:

Ducklings drinking

The usual opening shot of the ducklings; time to add more bedding tomorrow, I think:

Ducklings

A closer look:

Ducklings

I opened the bottom portion of the door, so Bert and the ducklings could see each other:

Bert and ducklings

They retreated at first, then came back out. Bert was good, just standing in the doorway; I was ready to stop him from going inside, but he didn’t try:

Bert and ducklings

He turned his head to look at them from his other eye:

Bert and ducklings

(Fun fact for today: ducks can be literally half-asleep: one eye closed and that side of the brain asleep, the other eye open and that side awake.)

A wide-angle shot of Bert and the ducklings after I closed the bottom of the door:

Bert and ducklings

The ducklings settled down again:

Ducklings

I also recorded a video of Bert quacking and the ducklings peeping, which I’ll probably upload tomorrow. Something to look forward to!

Video

Quack and peep

Sound on! Listen to Bert’s raspy quack in the first half of the video, and the ducklings peeping in the second half.

Ducklings day 7

Happy birthday ducklings! They hatched one week ago today.

Here’s a capture from the duck house cam of the ducklings drinking and eating in the dark (visible with night vision):

Ducklings cam

Another fun fact: chickens roost and sleep at night, hardly moving, because they can’t see in the dark. I believe the night vision of ducks is better, though still not as good as humans, so they can be active at night.

Good morning ducklings:

Ducklings