Gotta keep them Warm...

My brooders are in the greenhouse...

The first incubator I made is the blue structure to the right in this photograph. It rests on two cement blocks. In front of the incubator are jugs of water and disinfectants.

The brown box to the left of the jugs and incubator is a brooder box with a plywood cover. The round hole in the lid is for inserting a heat lamp and also provides ventilation. I can place a square of screen or hardware cloth over the opening to confine chicks that can fly.

A larger brooding area is to the left of the brooder box. This is a walled off area of the greenhouse floor with plywood forming a confining barrier. A heat lamp and a reflector lamp are attached to the plywood and illuminate the area under the greenhouse bench where the hatchlings are confined

In this close-up photo of the brooding area, the reflector is visible in the upper right of the photo. I put about a 100W bulb or less in it as a backup for the main heat lamp that is about 250W.

The feeder which holds starter/grower crumbles and the waterer rest on a block of half inch foam insulation sheathing. The floor is covered with pine shavings. In a few days the waterer will be placed on a screen board over a tray to catch water from these messy, messy children. The ducklings in the photo are about a couple of days old and came from eggs I hatched out of McMurray runner duck stock.

I haven't tried brooding ducklings on a floor of hardware cloth, but I understand that it works well. That is my next project.

In brooding and feeding, I try to keep them warm and to keep the insides of the brooder boxes relatively dry. Ducklings and chicks enjoy chopped scrap vegetables that I collect from local grocers as well as handsful of clover, chickweed, or other weeds that I may be able to pull up for them.

I give the ducklings some supplemental niacin in the drinking water, especially during the first couple of weeks. Supposedly niacin is needed for proper leg development. I also play the radio for them...mixed music...but it doesn't seem to help calm runner ducklings very much. They just seem to be a bit "nervous" or...runnery to me.

Back to home page

The views expressed on this web page are not necessarily the views of Georgia State University, Atlanta GA USA.