Old fashioned Broody Thread for Ducks

[Miss Lydia]

Thank you! I'm very excited! And thanks so much for replying so quickly. We got some feed for the ducklings... thanks for clearing that up

That would be so heartbreaking to have the ducklings killed, I'm sorry you all had to go through that. I think I'm going to just set up a separate area just in case... I really don't want to have to go through having the ducklings attacked :/ I'm going to see if I can scrounge up some materials today to build a little momma-and-baby duck house and then just put some fence around it. I wish I could just give them the whole of the main duck house, but we have to keep the whole flock in there at night as we have coyotes that come pretty close.

Thanks Miss Lydia and HollyDuckFarmer for sharing your experiences! I feel much less nervous now

I hope you'll post back when they begin to hatch, and I think being cautious can sure be a good idea when ducklings are so young at first and this way everyone gets to meet and greet with out any one getting hurt.

 

[daisybennett]

hoping you can help me with some info.......Newbie in Florida, a fenced in little pond with duck residence of 4 females and 3 males,32 of our females have layed and started hatching their ducklings today, so far i can see only 2 as of now, were all so excited! totally mother raised we have decided to let them all do their own thing in raising them without our interference, i have a few questions im hoping you can help? if so you can email me at [email protected]

 

[Amiga]

Welcome, Daisy, would you be willing to ask your questions in a post on this thread?

I am not a hatcher, but we have some very experienced folks here.

 

[BC-NZ]

A few days ago we found an egg had rolled out of out broody ducks nest and presumed it must be bad or so and it was totally cold, we candled it and could see good veins and a small raisin sized duckling inside - we decided to crack it open as it was properly cold but once open we could clearly see the heart beating so it was still fully alive! (I haven't hatched eggs before so a bit inexperienced and couldn't/didn't see the heard beating while candling)

My question is, how long can an egg be cold for before the duckling dies? If we had of put it back under mom would it have survived or still died anyway?? it was about 1 week on.

It was rather annoying to find it alive still and that I'd probably just killed it as it was one of 12 Khaki Campbell Eggs I put under her and with Murphy's law it would have been a female.... anyway... things happen

 

[Miss Lydia]

A few days ago we found an egg had rolled out of out broody ducks nest and presumed it must be bad or so and it was totally cold, we candled it and could see good veins and a small raisin sized duckling inside - we decided to crack it open as it was properly cold but once open we could clearly see the heart beating so it was still fully alive! (I haven't hatched eggs before so a bit inexperienced and couldn't/didn't see the heard beating while candling)

My question is, how long can an egg be cold for before the duckling dies? If we had of put it back under mom would it have survived or still died anyway?? it was about 1 week on.

It was rather annoying to find it alive still and that I'd probably just killed it as it was one of 12 Khaki Campbell Eggs I put under her and with Murphy's law it would have been a female.... anyway... things happen

I'm sorry to hear about the egg but just never know about things like that. I'm thinking temperature may have something to do with how long the egg remains alive, I know when I first started with chickens and some of my young hens would go broody they would get confused when they would leave the nest if they came back and found one of the other hens laying in their nest of eggs and would go and lay in another nest box and I guess forget to go back to their original nest of eggs[ their in a world of their own when broody]after they would leave and they would be off the nest sometimes 2-3 hrs. and she would still hatch out those eggs.

 

[daisybennett]

Thank you. our hatchlings have hatched she had 15 successful eggs

should we separate mother n hatchlings from the the big pen till older? There are 2 other mothers with egg couches in the same pen. I'll try to upload some more pics of pen area if I can.lol also not sure wat all our duck breeds are. My daughter's were Givin 7 adult ducks last year 4 white ones, 2 green white n black, and one brown n black , I'll def have to catch up on reading all the post's I can as we have fell in love with these pets. Lol hoping you can help.

 

[daisybennett]

ty yup we separated them this morning in a smaller more secluded pen. really hoping the other two clutches don't hatch till were ready for them lol, we do have another danger iv been worried about....we have passing chicken hawks every now n then. iv put up fake owl decoys & a garden wind mill around our big pen which is open top. we moved mother n ducklings in an enclosed pen. can or will a chicken hawk carry off a full grown duck? haven't really had any issues yet but still worried lol

 

[Carisblues]

Haven't posted in a while. I have a silkie hen sitting on 4 Australian Spotted duck eggs. She has been doing a great job so far. My last candling was Saturday the 5th. All four looked great. That was day 19. I will candle for the last time on the 24th day which will be the 10th. My question is this: the broody hen has not come off her nest on her own since she has been in her private enclosure. Every day I take her off the nest to make her eat drink and poop. I have to close the door to the nest or she will run back in. I have food and water inside close by for her but she doesn't budge. My fear is that the last 4 days of lockdown will be too long for her to go without water or food. Also that she might eliminate in the nest if I don't remove her. I would hate to disturb the eggs when they shouldn't be turned. Anyone have any experience here?

 

[BC-NZ]

I'm sorry to hear about the egg but just never know about things like that. I'm thinking temperature may have something to do with how long the egg remains alive, I know when I first started with chickens and some of my young hens would go broody they would get confused when they would leave the nest if they came back and found one of the other hens laying in their nest of eggs and would go and lay in another nest box and I guess forget to go back to their original nest of eggs[ their in a world of their own when broody]after they would leave and they would be off the nest sometimes 2-3 hrs. and she would still hatch out those eggs.

well we found 2 more were out of the nest since the last one so I put them under her again, will see how many she hatches out....

 

[Miss Lydia]

And don't over load he with too many maybe she feels she has too many? I don't know just trying to figure out she maybe rolling them out.