Is my pekin bantam male or female?

[lhbb3]

Hello,

We've recently bought 2 aylesbury ducklings which we were told were 10 days old, I know they're a bigger breed but these are almost the size 2 small wild ducks, they have feathers starting to come through around their wings and tail but the rest of their body is like cotton wool with only faint yellow in now.

 

Just wondering if anyone has any idea roughly how old they might be?

 

Also, slightly off topic but what substrate do people tend to have down for a duck enclosures?

 

Thanks,

Lauren.

[Duck Mad]

Hello...

Judging by sound of it, I would say about 3 or 4 weeks old, They grow so fast!

If your looking for enlosure ideas. It depends on how long they spend in there, If they can free rage in the day, but just lock up at night/unsupervised times... (not that mine actually need supervising lol) a ten foot run so they can flap about etc .. but if its a permant living area, building something as big as you can would be good ....

Mine free range all day, in a secure garden, so their pens are about 10ft

 

Good luck with your ducklings they are great pets

[lhbb3]

Hello,

Thanks for the reply, yeah we were convinced they were older than 10 days. We got a couple of indian runner hens just under a year ago and they were about 9 days when we got them and they were tiny little things so despite aylesburys being bigger I couldn't belive it would have been by such a huge amount!

 

They actually already have the enclsoure, but we're trying to think of putting something other than bark chippings in there because they get so muddy and turn their water in a dirty pit within about 30 mins of it being changed!

 

I've read that some people use sand because it drains well and is easy to remove any mess from, others have said small pebbles.....I've see some chicken enclosures with rubber mulch and wondered if this would be okay for ducks?

 

Thanks again,

Lauren.

[Duck Mad]

Hello again ... Well I have medium size pebbles around my pond, it deffo seperates the water and the mud, my garden was muddy join the winter, and the soloution to it was the pebbles over mud...... But i havent deprived them of playing in mud completely, because the mud patch is well away from the pond... it reall does help a lot to lay it out this way... I would of thought if sand is near the pond, the pond would get full of sand.. I like to give pond a real good clean once a week, so sand would just make extra work ... but maybe its not a prob....

 

and Duck size, I think you just know when the age dont sound right, I had it the other way round, I was told my duckling was 4 weeks old, so tiny no feathers really showing through as such, I got very worried thinking something was wrong, not developing right, but he grew into a big boy, so he was much younger than i was led to believe...

Casey x