When we moved to our new house, I knew that I wanted to bring home some baby ducklings as soon as we were set up for them. I have always loved ducks. As an avid baker who prizes their eggs, I’ve dreamed of having my own small flock of layers for years. Because I am lucky enough to work for McMurray Hatchery, I’ve spent many hours reading everything duck. From learning about different breeds and health considerations to reading about housing needs and feeding requirements, I did my due diligence before dipping my toes into the wonderful world of raising backyard ducks for the first time.

I followed the same basic brooder setup that I always use when raising backyard chicks. Because I had recently raised a group of chicks and transitioned them into our main coop, I had all of the supplies on hand that I needed for raising ducklings.

For the first week, we brought our ducklings outside for supervised play time. By the second week, i was able to transition them to living in an outdoor brooder during the day, and I brought them back in to their smaller brooder at night. Following Ann Accetta-Scott’s advice on raising ducklings, I stopped keeping their feed and water in the brooder overnight around week five. This helped keep their indoor brooder cleaner for longer, too!

Overall, I loved raising backyard ducklings…and happily look forward to it again this summer. Our ducks are excellent foragers with wonderful personalities. I’m already using their bedding and manure to enrich our garden, and I look forward to their help with slug duty this spring and summer. Best of all, I love waking up to their eggs each morning. My grandparents can attest that my baking has certainly leveled up since our ducks began to lay!