Another Broody Duck!

[shawluvsbirds]

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:

I can't see the pictures

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I can't see the pictures

@shawluvsbirds - 0ops! Sorry about that, somehow my album's privacy was set to »Only Owner can see«.
You should be able to see everything now.
Edit: There must have been some kind of glitch in the system, i had several albums with wrong viewing permissions. Fixed!

 

[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!

 

[Beaglegal]

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!

The ducklings can help babysit their younger siblings .

 

[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!

I must be losing it.
I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles I saw an egg last night under Remi that had two external pips in it!
I went out to check on the situation today and there are actually more eggs under her then I counted last night. .
No sign of a hatching egg.. empty shell.. duckling or nothing.
These broodies are playing mind games with me.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

One of the non broody ducks trying to stay out of all the broody business

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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!

That's why i mark all eggs under a broody with a black board marker asap!
And everything found in that nest without having a mark is removed asap.
Controlled daily!
The problem is that if you have a hatch spread out for more than a few days (~2-4) the duck will either abandon the last couple of eggs, probably while they are hatching, starve the ducklings or loose some ducklings because they start to explore on their own…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

One of the non broody ducks trying to stay out of all the broody business
View attachment 2132773

Clever girl! - Broody ducks are a mess!

 

[shawluvsbirds]

That's why i mark all eggs under a broody with a black board marker asap!
And everything found in that nest without having a mark is removed asap.
Controlled daily!
The problem is that if you have a hatch spread out for more than a few days (~2-4) the duck will either abandon the last couple of eggs, probably while they are hatching, starve the ducklings or loose some ducklings because they start to explore on their own…

Yeah...
Maybe a more responsible duck parent would do that.
But I have also found in the past that messing with their nest too much can also cause problems. Especially with the ones that are new to sitting. I just have too much to do keeping it clean and keeping everyone fed and watered to be checking eggs in nests every single day.
I have sort of just started taking the approach that whatever will be will be
I can always steal the ducklings and brood them myself if the moms do abandon some of them.
Or pop unhatched eggs in the incubator if it ends up being a staggered hatch.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Yeah...
Maybe a more responsible duck parent would do that.
But I have also found in the past that messing with their nest too much can also cause problems. Especially with the ones that are new to sitting. I just have too much to do keeping it clean and keeping everyone fed and watered to be checking eggs in nests every single day.
I have sort of just started taking the approach that whatever will be will be
I can always steal the ducklings and brood them myself if the moms do abandon some of them.
Or pop unhatched eggs in the incubator if it ends up being a staggered hatch.

I neither have a brooder ready for any abandoned duckling, nor do i own an incubator (yet). So for me it is important to keep things straight with the one broody duck i have.
She is starting to trust me more and more since i have started to bring her tasty meal worms whenever i come to visit her on the nest.