Babies hatching , need urgent advice please

eLiz423

In the Brooder
Jun 2, 2016
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0
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Hi. I have a female duck laying on her eggs. The first one was born yesterday but did not make it overnight (seems the duckling got away from the nest and something got a ahold of it sad.png I was dumb thinking it would be safe with the momma. I have two other females and two males. 5total ducks all right at a yr old. She has pushed her nest up against the chicken coop fence (the ducks have enclosures to go under etc but never really did even as they were young. But I made a mistake of leaving her vulnerable last night.
So I have a coop full of chickens but there are 3of them that fly out of the coop and hang out in the yard roaming free with the ducks.
My question is that I am thinking I can grab the ducklings after a few hrs after they have hatched and bring them in under a heat lamp so for one they will be ppl friendly and two bc of all the others free ranging around the yard they would not be safe staying outside?
And when I take the ducklings inside (but I will still bring them out to play during the day) will the momma duck go into some type of depression bc I've taken her babies away? I'd figure they would survive if they were brought inside the first couple weeks but I do not want to cause any stress to the brooding duck.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance smile.png
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Also I was thinking after a few weeks not sure how long but I would put up chicken wire or something to let the babies to start hanging outside all day then progressing to staying outside day and night
I need a lil advice folks smile.png take care
 
Would it be possible for you to put the duck and ducklings in a safe enclosed space for a bit?
 
Yes I did that overnight , tucked them in real good and snug and the baby made it overnight. But I am just mainly concerned about the momma , worried of traumatizing the momma duck and putting her in depression if I immideatly take the duckling away. Is that possible ? I would like for the baby to be human friendly or atleast friendly with me , their human :)
 
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In my opinion it would be unkind to take the babies away from their mom. @Miss Lydia has some experience with ducks raising ducklings. Let's see what she says..
 
@eLiz423 I feel the same about taking the ducklings from mama if you can keep her and babies safe from the rest of the flock. I just had 3 Muscovy's hatch out ducklings and after about a week by themselves where none of the other flock members could get to them they were okay out and about with mom. The drakes you need to watch closely they have been known to kill ducklings.

Now I am in the process of getting all 11 ducklings to understand I am not going to eat them. I sit outside alot and spend time close as they will let me get now that moms have left them they are 5 weeks old I bring out dried meal worms and offer to them. We can get them where they will feel safe around us but as far as holding them not many ducks feel comfortable being held. But all my ducks and chickens will eat out of my hand except the ducklings and that will come with time hopefully. If you decide to take them from their mom you will miss out on a great experience watching mom with her babies and also they will miss out on alot. It's so much more natural to let mom do it. of course unless she isn't caring for her babies or letting something happen to them then we step in.

Welcome to BYC
 
Can I post a video? Not sure how and I just took a quick one of them together. Here is a picture of my crew
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They are all right at a yr old. Here's a pic of the momma and baby(see I have a mixed crew in the above pictures)
Tell me if you notice anything in this picture :) :) :)
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Beautiful little one and a protective momma watching over it.
 
He is cute. :) very exciting. You notice he's got a lil knot head just like the momma. :)
 
He does too! Aww… You must post more pics of them when she's done hatching them, please. She's so beautiful and so is the little one. Congrats on the hatch by the way!
 

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