Protect from drafts while ensuring adequate ventilation

Place the brooder in a location free from cold drafts at duckling level while maintaining good air exchange above. A brooder with solid walls and an open or mesh-covered top provides the ideal balance — walls block floor-level drafts while the open top allows ammonia and moisture to escape upward. Duckling droppings are very wet and produce ammonia quickly in a confined space.

Why It Works

Ducklings are highly sensitive to both drafts and poor air quality. A cold draft across the brooder floor can chill ducklings even when the heat source reads the correct temperature, because moving air strips heat from their bodies far faster than still air. Simultaneously, the ammonia from their wet droppings accumulates rapidly in an enclosed space and causes respiratory damage at concentrations as low as 25 ppm — well below what most people can smell.

Tips

• If you can smell ammonia when you lean over the brooder, levels are already too high — clean bedding immediately and improve ventilation
• Avoid placing the brooder near exterior doors, open windows, or HVAC vents that create drafts
• A garage or basement works well in cool weather; a spare room or enclosed porch in mild weather
• Stock tanks make excellent brooders because their solid metal walls block drafts completely while the open top ventilates
• Change bedding daily if ammonia is a persistent issue — ducklings produce far more moisture than chicks