chicken bark Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 Thank you all for your advice in my new venture. Things I have done today: I have now put my name down for 3 Cayuga females. I have ordered a duck house. I have attached lengths of hose together so I know I can get water from the house to the ducks. I have commandeered the children's hard sand pit/paddling pool I have identified a suitable feed dish Planning on using wood shavings in the house and feeding them on layers pellets so already have all that. A couple of quick questions though: 1) Should I put Diatom in their house? 2) Can they have ACV in their drinking water? 3) Do I worm them with Flubenvet? I suppose basically can I treat them pretty much the same as I do the hens apart from the water part? Can you tell I'm excited? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayjay Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 Congratulations CB you will love your ducks They are great fun to interact with - friendly and comical mostly! By all accounts, however, they are not really treated the same as hens. Someone with more experience will be along shortly but I'm not sure about the wood shavings - straw seems to be the best, it's not so messy when it gets wet etc. It's certainly what I use and it's fine. I have never used Diatom, ACV or Flubenvet - they are wet creatures and this helps them avoid beasties. Most folk I have heard from don't treat the duckies with anything - wonderful creatures! Just feed them, house them, give them lots and lots of water and they will be happy! JJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicken bark Posted August 21, 2010 Author Share Posted August 21, 2010 Thanks JJ. You make it sound simple! I hope it will be. I've also got chopped up cardboard which is meant for horse bedding (I use that for my hens too) do you think that would be better than wood shavings? Ideally I'd like a bedding that I could use for both hens and ducks and I don't fancy using straw for my hens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miller30 Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 I use a layer of shavings and then a layer of straw on top in my duck house and when i worm my chickens with flubenvet i do the ducks aswell apart from that i dont use any powders on them or in their house leanne. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted August 22, 2010 Share Posted August 22, 2010 We use straw as bedding and don't worm or use louse powder etc. on any of the ducks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucky1 Posted August 22, 2010 Share Posted August 22, 2010 We use straw too Anything else quickly dgenerated into a glooby mess Good Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicken bark Posted August 31, 2010 Author Share Posted August 31, 2010 Thanks for all your advice. I ordered a Duck coop online but didn't like it when it arrived so have ordered another one today. I had been hoping to get the ducks this week so it is annoying but I'd rather get them accommodation I am happy with. I wanted to ensure that it would be easy to clean so the one I've now ordered I can take the back off completely. The new house I've ordered is also bigger so there is room for expansion already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donald Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 Hi Never wormed etc ducks or mite etc etc I used straw in the past but found it took so long to decompose on a compost heap and the shavings were more absorbant. Straws harder to muck out even with a pitch fork I would personally go for shavings than straw(have used lots of different types bedding straw etc with horses and the shavings are better for rotting down and easier to muck out). Plus the eggs seem to be cleaner with shavings Good luck sounds like you are well prepared etc donald Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
