Our New Baby Chicks and Ducks

Here are the boxes of chicks and ducks from Tractor Supply.  There are 12 chicks in the white box and 4 large ducklings in the red box.  The bottom fell out of the duckling box right as I was putting it in the car.  Thankfully, none of the ducks fell out and we made it all of the way home!

We set up our brooder in a water trough.  We bought it special for this purpose but when the chicks and ducklings are done with it we can use it for the horses in the Fall.  The chicks and ducklings need a heat lamp and a temperature about 95 degrees.  I had some trouble figuring out how to rig up the heat lamp! The ducklings try to swim in the waterer we bought and splash all of the water out until there isn't any left for them to drink. I also used some tops from tin containers to make a feeder but didn't like it so switched it for an ice cube tray.

We bought 12 chicks total. The one in the picture to the right is a Barred Rock. We bought 2 of these. We also bought 6 Orpington chicks and 4 Isa Brown chicks. The Isa Browns were sexed so we know they are all girls. The Orpington and Barred Rock are straight run so we have no idea what they are. All of them are good egg layers and the larger birds so also good for butchering.  We will only keep one rooster so if we have more than one (which is likely) they will be butchered this Summer.  All of the types we bought are supposed to be friendly.

On the left is one of our ducklings.  You can also see them in the picture on the right along with some of the chicks.  I'm not sure what type of ducks they are, Tractor Supply didn't have a breed type on them.  The picture showed them to be brown or brown and white when they get their feathers.