Broody duck!!! Hatching questions!

[Madelennon]

Man, do I have one broody duck. She is sitting on a nest of 16 eggs right now and so far I have just been letting her take the lead and letting nature take its course. This is okay right? This is my first time letting them hatch. Do I need to be doing anything? I have been afraid to touch them or candle them because she is kinda skiddish and I don't want her to get scared off. I have gotten ALOT of conflicting information on how to handle this. We are around 18-20 days in, I suspect. HELP!!!!

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Man, do I have one broody duck. She is sitting on a nest of 16 eggs right now and so far I have just been letting her take the lead and letting nature take its course. This is okay right? This is my first time letting them hatch. Do I need to be doing anything? I have been afraid to touch them or candle them because she is kinda skiddish and I don't want her to get scared off. I have gotten ALOT of conflicting information on how to handle this. We are around 18-20 days in, I suspect. HELP!!!!

Since she gets off the nest (or should be) to eat and swim at least once a day, I'd get the eggs out of the nest and candle them when she does that so you can remove any bad ones. There's no point leaving bad eggs in the nest and a lot of reasons not to. Some people would tell you that a duck can't successfully hatch that many eggs, but that's not true. It really depends on the duck, and it doesn't have to be a particularly large duck like a Pekin. One of our Khaki Campbells, which is a relatively small duck, sat on a nest of 18 eggs and hatched 17 of them.

 

[Madelennon]

If I candle them and put them back she will still sit right? We don't have an incubator and I would hate to lose them by messing with her nest. Also, after they have hatched do I need to take them? I don't really have a good way to separate the drake from the ducklings if they make it.

 

[Amykins]

It's really not advised to take ducklings from mama once she's hatched them. You'd be amazed how quickly they imprint. You're just gonna have to find a way to separate that drake. Plywood, netting, make a second run, anything it takes.

As for candling, since you're already so far in, they're probably best left untouched, to be honest. If you must, take a look when she gets up to eat or drink and see if any of them have the telltale rotten egg patina to them.

 

[buff goose guy]

Amy I do have to disagree as long as the babies are not over a week old and you take them early enough they will attach to you as long as the mother never sees them after you have taken . At our farm it has been verysucessful and some of our nicest and friendliest ducks came to the world this way. So as long as you spend a lot of time with them once u take them they should imprint on you .

 

[Madelennon]

Thank you! It is really hard to find any answers when almost everything on Google comes up with balut! LOL!

 

[Amykins]

Amy I do have to disagree as long as the babies are not over a week old and you take them early enough they will attach to you as long as the mother never sees them after you have taken . At our farm it has been verysucessful and some of our nicest and friendliest ducks came to the world this way. So as long as you spend a lot of time with them once u take them they should imprint on you .

I ain't just talking about the babies, I mean the mama, too. I would not wanna deal with the wrath and sadness of a lonely mama duck who just lost all her kids!

 

[Amykins]

Thank you! It is really hard to find any answers when almost everything on Google comes up with balut! LOL!

That's....wow, that's depressing.

 

[buff goose guy]

Quote: well when it comes down to it its the mother happiness or the babies lives.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

If I candle them and put them back she will still sit right? We don't have an incubator and I would hate to lose them by messing with her nest. Also, after they have hatched do I need to take them? I don't really have a good way to separate the drake from the ducklings if they make it.

I can't predict how individual birds will behave, but I will tell you what we do.

The mama needs to get off the nest for a while at least once per day whether she wants to or not. Most do it voluntarily, but I've seen anecdotal evidence of ducks that will set on a nest and starve themselves to death rather than get off the nest. We had a buff Orpington at one point that didn't want to budge, so I shooed her off the nest at least once per day. She puffed, she hissed, she bit me, she fought as much like a tiger as a duck could fight, but she had to go for her own good. Once she was out, she enjoyed being out to eliminate, bathe, and just run around.

Once per week, we'd lock the pen so she couldn't get back in until we removed the eggs, candled them, then replaced them in her nest. She never seemed to know/care that we'd done that. It is a myth, at least with most birds, that they won't have anything to do with their eggs after a human touches them. I mentioned in another thread that I think that's something our moms and grandmothers tell us to keep us from messing with eggs in bird nests when we're curious kids. Just make sure you thoroughly clean your hands, arms, and anything else the eggs will touch before you do it so you don't contaminate the eggs.

I would not take the ducklings from her unless you want to hand-raise them. She would like to have her ducklings, and she's already attached to them at that point since ducks communicate with their ducklings before the hatch. The drake is iffy and something you can't predict until it happens. Watch that closely to see how the drake reacts. How that turns out will depend as much on the mom as it does the drake. Some moms will defend the babies, some will let the drake do as drakes do. If that happens with you, you're going to have to find a way to separate the drake unless you want to take the ducklings.