Advise needed please

[Madenglishman]

We have Cayuga ducks one has hatched her own eggs she has 5 ducklings. I have penned her off from the other female and the males but the other female is sitting to. They are due to hatch in another 2 weeks when they do can I put both mums and babies in together or will they attack each other and kill the ducklings ????

I also have a broody chickening sitting on six duck eggs when they hatch can I move these in with the mother ducks and babies these are also due to hatch in about 2 -3 weeks

 

[DemonicFowl]

IMO I would not but someone else might say otherwise. Ducks look after their own babies an most likely attack each other to compete for survival. Only a few ducklings in the wild make it to adults, out of a batch. So they can be pretty high strung.

 

[DucksAndGardens]

You can probably put the ducks and babies they hatched together without issue but the ducks that hatch out from under the chicken you won't be able to put in with the ducks unless you were able to sneak them in under the broody duck under the cover of night. If you notice that her eggs are hatching under her then you could possibly move the eggs under the chicken under her but unless the timing is near perfect you wouldn't be able to pull a fast one on mama duck and she won't accept the ducklings.

If you wanted to be on the perfectly safe side I would keep them all separated because it wouldn't take much for an angry duck to injure or kill a duckling.