Hi All, I’ve had a mixed chicken/duck flock for years, with some very broody chicken breeds so am used to breaking the hens. However, I just added some Metzer Farms ducks last year and have had much more duck broodiness from their Welsh Harlequin, Cayuga, and blue Swedish lines. I had never realized before that ducks can bite hard enough to draw blood! I’m going out of town in a week and want to try to break the ducks before I go as my pet sitter may quit if a duck bites him. It’s quite hot now (100 F highs) but we will have three cooler days before I go.
My setup: Ducks mostly lay and are broody in chicken metal nest boxes in the shared coop. Lots of fighting over nest boxes due to both broody hens and ducks. I’m currently working on breaking hens by placing in a shaded wire cage with a wire bottom and roost. I give them a small fan and iced water in a bottle when it’s so hot. Hens are realy hard to break in the heat. I’ve only broken my older ducks a few times, by removing their nest. But my newer gals are nesting in the chicken boxes so I can’t remove them. Some ducks are still laying eggs in nest boxes so I don’t want to block all ducks from nest boxes. Would it work to put them in the wire cages with a bowl of water and food on those predicted cool days? Thanks!
My setup: Ducks mostly lay and are broody in chicken metal nest boxes in the shared coop. Lots of fighting over nest boxes due to both broody hens and ducks. I’m currently working on breaking hens by placing in a shaded wire cage with a wire bottom and roost. I give them a small fan and iced water in a bottle when it’s so hot. Hens are realy hard to break in the heat. I’ve only broken my older ducks a few times, by removing their nest. But my newer gals are nesting in the chicken boxes so I can’t remove them. Some ducks are still laying eggs in nest boxes so I don’t want to block all ducks from nest boxes. Would it work to put them in the wire cages with a bowl of water and food on those predicted cool days? Thanks!
