Another Broody Duck!

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I was so worried about this duck: She hasn't left her nest since Monday night and i was afraid she would starve herself to death. But this morning, when i opened the duck house door she covered her nest and stormed out. She dumped a pile of poo, the size of a duckling, ran to the waterer and gulped down what looked like a gallon, dumped again, chick sized and then came to eat cat food.
She has never taken cat food out of my hand, but this morning she did! Lot's of it! Blanca got scared and protested loudly!
After breakfast she exercised, ran over Erpelchen and Brownie, finally hopping into the pool and taking a bath.
Meanwhile i sneaked into the duck house and examined her nest: There were seven real duck eggs plus four wooden eggs inside. She really means it!
I removed the wooden eggs and marked the real eggs, so i will be able to remove any new eggs from now on - like i did with Katharina last summer.
This is the new Momma Duck, right before running back into the house:

I called her »Ducky« or »Momma Duck« so far because she never earned herself a name! I do hesitate to call her Maggie, because that name brought no luck to her two sisters who recently disappeared…

Any idea for a good name?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Broody dust is in the air now!
There's no stopping them!
Never heard a duck hiss?
Normally mine hiss and huff. Not cry like Pinball did.

None of my ducks has hissed ever! When Katharina Duck was sitting last year she made a sound like »ang, ang, ang, ang!« when i came too close to the nest. I guess she wanted to say she has "Angst" (fear)…
If Blanca goes broody, the duck house might turn into a no-go zone! She won't cry, huss or puff, just snap and swallow…

 

[MischickenNY]

What about Gracie ?

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Aren't broody ducks adorable and exemplary?!
Love your Duckies! - What are you going to do with so many duck[ling]s?

I was getting texts right and left from people wanting call ducks last summer and fall I could not hatch enough!


If I wind up with a bunch of extra Drakes I will process and eat those.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I candled the eggs yesterday, while »Momma« was messing up the outside: There is development i n all seven! I saw veins and tiny beating hearts!
And just finished in time before she came back inside and jumped straight back on her nest. She got some meal worms out of my hand today because she is such a good mama.
Here is the carefully covered nest:

And here is Momma Duck having day-dreams of little ducklings, you see how blurry everything around the nest becomes when she is sitting:

And here is a closeup of her on the nest from Wednesday:

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I have so much broody drama going on.
Ivy, the duck that just hatched ducklings obviously wants more.
She keeps kicking poor Maizee off of her nest and trying to sit on her eggs with the ducklings.
Remi started sitting around the same time ivy did
So I thought she would have some ling's hatching by now.
I just went out and candled the eggs.
She originally only had four...
Now there was 7.
One is pipping... Two looks like they had developed fully but died. No idea where the 4th egg went that she originally had because the rest of them look like they're only about 10 to 15 days along.
This is going to be a mess!

 

[shawluvsbirds]

No candling of eggs necessary anymore!

At least two little ducklings have hatched this afternoon

​

I had some hatch today too!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Part four: I'm done with the "housekeeping" saying "see you later" to »Ducky«:

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Part five, You can see how vicious the Momma duck to be is: Those three drakes from the neighbors winter ducklings tried to do - what drakes do this time of the year. And she fought them off! She fought off three drakes! Brownie is twice her size and he retreated…

Apologies, i only caught the end of the rukus on the DuckyCam, but that's enough violence i guess…

 

[DuckGirl77]

Wow, she's determined! How many ducks will this be if most of them hatch?