2 Broody Girls

[Goose_Willis]

So I have two broody ducks, each one has her own nest but they are both in the coop together. They went broody on the same day so I am assuming any fertilized eggs will hatch at the same time.

I section off half of my run for my broody ducks but I don't have a way to split that up for two moms currently. These same two ducks tried unsuccessfully to incubate one nest together earlier in the summer so they do seem to enjoy each other's company but I've heard that mother ducks will peck at ducklings that aren't theirs.

I am wondering if I should choose one girl and give her all of the eggs and shoo the other one out with the adults or is it possible they'll just keep their ducklings together since they already do everything together?

For context, when they decided to use the same nest, one if them only left the nest once a day in the evening while the other would leave 3-4 times per day so I think I would choose the one that acted more dedicated to her nest to seperate but this particular pair of ducks normally do everything together so I'm worried taking one away will cause the other one to give up? The 'less dedicated' of the pair is my smallest duck and she likes to pick fights with the rest of the flock so I also worry about how she would act with fresh babies since she's already kind of a punk with the adults.

 

[Debbie292d]

I've heard of nest sharing a lot. It happens often with chickens too. You won't be able to just shoo one duck away. If she's broody, she thinks those are as much her eggs as the other hen does. If they hatch together, they'll each believe the ducklings are theirs, and at first, there might be some issues if the ducklings all follow one and not the other. It's easier if they'll stick together after they hatch or they just happen to split up between them. At night, they'll all be mixed up again as I'm sure they'll huddle up together in the same nest.