Why Did We Decide to Give Our Ducklings Brooder Names?

Incubation is a long, fun, and emotional process. We enjoyed it, despite the emotional roller coaster it was.

Now as of 5/10/2024 we are into the first week of brooding this first clutch. Watching them grow is a blast, they change so much day to day.

Some of the most difficult aspects of young hatchlings is you don’t know gender right away. We will have to wait until the end of the brooding period to see the signs of gender.

Large scale breeders have a method called venting. It takes skill to accurately determine gender & you also run the risk of permanently damaging your ducklings. We decided that it just wasn’t worth the risk of determining gender early.

In the meantime we need to keep all the ducklings apart to eventually determine gender, so we can let a few of these happy ducklings join some of your Tacoma, WA urban homesteads.

While our traditional method of sexing ducks is less accurate; it will allow us to keep some layers, at least one drake, & help you know what we are allowing to be adopted.

With dog breeders, & other animal breeders using colored collars etc. to help keep them apart without becoming too attached. We are trying to use this method of brooder names as our “collars” since we have such a beautifully eclectic flock in our brooder.

Banding ducking legs can be dangerous if you’re not trained, & we definitely aren’t. So wrapping a band on our ducklings legs is not really an option.

Meet the Brooder Flock

In birth order with brooder name, hatch dates, and coloration:

Lucky 5/4/24, yellow with a blueish bill/mask around eyes

Clover 5/5/24, dark with a little green shine & yellow chest

Poppy 5/5/24, just like Clover dark with a little more of a yellow chest

Sunny 5/6/24, yellow like Lucky with more yellow & lighter bill

Moss 5/7/24, dark greenish almost the same color all over, chest is lighter but not by much

Nightshade 5/8/24, our darkest duckling almost black

So What Makes a Brooder Name vs. a Mature Name?

Well first & foremost, gender neutrality is helpful! Also using unique features of the duckling can help you distinguish them as they grow. For instance we have “twins” these two ducklings were born right after each other & they funnily enough look almost the same: Clover is the name of the older duckling who is a little darker & slightly green, and Poppy has more yellow on their chest.

A good Brooder Name is like a childhood nickname, it helps you remember who is who. Since you won’t know the hens from the drakes, it’s a great way to bond with them but not be too attached because you know their name is subject to change.

A Mature Name is one that can stick, & with help you know your layers from your drakes, especially if you want to incubate again.

It’s kinda like going by your full name as an adult -or- maybe we could consider it more like a surname. This is just our method of keeping them straight in order to determine what genders we have. We are kinda making this up as we go.

We like the idea of it being

Brooder Name, Mature Name much like

First or Given Name, Last or Family Name

But you can always decide to what you want to do about your flocks names.

Why Are Names

Important for Ducks?

Well ducks are trainable, they do follow commands & like routines. Having something to call them can help when you need them to follow you or go to a certain of your property.

All in all, having a name for your animals helps you all work together to have your homestead-in-the-city have as much order as a group of animals can muster.

Your urban farm is a unit, and we all have pretty small properties compared to most farms. That means clear communication will help everyone, even your animals, work in harmony.

So what do you think?

Comment below what kind of Brooder Name & Mature Name set up would you like?

Ex if Sunny turns out to be a female:

Sunny Anne -or- Sunny house of Henna* -or- Charlotte Sunny -or- well you tell us what you think would work best on your farm?

We’d love to hear your thoughts, & if you’ve done something like brooder names before what did you do?

*shameless pun intended, but hey it’s easy to remember Sunny’s gender