HENthusiastic Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Howdy. Its only a week away that OH will be getting the new birthday ducks . One thing has just occured to me though. I have a 'pond' and bowl for drinking water ready, but what about feed. I know they eat the same pellets as the chooks, but will they be able to eat out of the chook feeders? Trouble if they dont. If I put out a dish of food for the ducks, the chickens may well eat it all! (When they are integrated that is. I'm going to keep them separate to start with as I do for integrating chooks). Any hits or tips appreciated. I'm new to ducks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucky1 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Their beaks are a little different so they need a slightly wider access to the chooks. I did pick a couple of "double dog bowl" things from Tesco (plastic about £1 each) they would do the job. We do sometimes find that the darling chooks get a little posessive over "their food" so maybe a seperate feeder until they're all one big happy family. Good Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom123 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 They aren't supposed to be able to but when some of my call ducks escape they always use the small chook feeders. The Indian Runners use a large 10kg chicken feeder with large holes as they use to get into the trough and poo in it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayjay Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 My pair have a large steel dog bowl from Tesco too. Pellets and water to make a lovely appealling mush . JJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Ducks need to scoop their food so something like a non-spill dog bowl (wider at the base) is ideal - they also need to have pellets and not mash as mash will clog their nostrils. We have spiral feeder bins for our hens where the hens peck at a spring underneath and the pellets fall out for them to eat, we keep the ducks' pellets in one - using it as a storage bin - we've noticed that if their food bowl is empty that they've taught themselves to peck at the spring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HENthusiastic Posted July 6, 2010 Author Share Posted July 6, 2010 Oh dear that could be a problem. I have a big 12kg feeder which all the chickens eat from. If I manage to integrate the chooks and ducks, the chances are that the chickens would eat all the pellets (not mash - thanks lesley) from the ducks bowl, leaving them nothing to eat. I wonder if there is anyway I could set up a bowl for the ducks in a way that the chickens couldnt get to it? Any ideas folks? I guess its not urgent because they will be segregated to start with anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
