Well, my homestead dreams are coming true – we finally have chickens and ducks! You know, when we first started “homesteading,” I never thought I would get ducks, but the more research I did, the more that I found out about ducks and pest control. They are AMAZING for pest control in the yard *and* in the garden, obviously without harmful chemicals. So, we did it. We jumped in and got 2 ducks, 4 chickens, and then hatched a total of 16 more chicks, and boy has it been a learning process.
One thing that I’ve learned? The ducks are STINKY and messy. Our first “batch” of birds included our two ducks and let me tell you something – I’ve never smelled a stinkier brooder. You always hear “Chickens are stinky.” I don’t think so! The ONLY part of our brooder and coop that is stinky is from our ducks – and it all has to do with water. So, I thought what was a stinky brooder from chickens was just a stinky brooder from ducks.
We’ve learned a ton from hatching chicks. We had a lot of losses, a lot of eggs not hatch at all, and some sickie chicks that we mended back to health. In fact, one of the chicken breeds that I have always wanted is a frizzle. With most chickens, the feathers lay pretty flat against their bodies. With frizzles, they fluff up, away from their body. That chicken (named Sherri), had wry neck when she was a day old. A lot of people say that when you have a chick with a horrible case of wry neck, you can’t save it, but I worked with this little chick and was able to help and save her!
How to help a chick with wry neck
How did I help her? Well, first of all, I gave her Vitamin E multiple times a day. I started with just a drop on my finger and gave her more as each day passed. I also did stretches with her as much as I could (I gently stretched her neck the opposite way) and when I was holding her, I would try to hold her neck up in a neutral position. You could tell she was scared and exhausted because as soon as I did that, she would immediately rest in my hand and fall asleep. I also added ACV to her water for an extra probiotic boost and last but not least, I gave her brewer’s yeast (this is what helped her the most!). Everything I did worked but it did take 4-7 days to really heal.
It has been an interesting journey, that is for sure. Now, we are about to move our second batch (the smaller chickens) into the coop and we are trying to figure out how we should introduce them to our bigger chickens. I’ve heard horror stories, so I definitely want to be very careful with it. We have a separate covered run and indoor coop, so I think we are either going to use a dog crate for the small chicks, or just keep them in the indoor coop, and let the big chickens (and ducks) sleep in the run.
Another thing we are trying to figure out is how many roosters we have in the bunch. So far, we know that we have at least 2, for sure. Both of our bantam chickens are roosters 🙁 and I believe we are relatively sure about one of our black easter eggers being a rooster. Aside from those 3, I am really not sure. It is hard to tell! Much harder than people make it out to be. We also are not 100% sure which duck is a boy and which is a girl. I think we had it backward and I believe that Cheese is a girl and Quackers is a boy. But who knows! This is going based on their sound. We will know in time.
Overall, chickens (and ducks) have been SUPER easy to care for. Especially the chickens! I cannot wait until we start getting eggs – this will be SO awesome! I would highly recommend anyone to get chickens for themselves.