Broody Duck; how to let her hatch ducklings without any interfering

[DaffytheDuck20]

Hello! We have once again got a broody duck. Last time this happened I beleive I interfered too much which made unsettled which led to a very unsucessful hatch... so this time I want to just let her do it on her own with the as minimal interfering as possible. We are probably already about 10-12 days in with about 15ish (most likely) fertile eggs. She is currently in a little old dog house in the run where all the ducks lay eggs. (it is enclosed and we can lock them all in there but can also let them out to the big run) I have also noticed that when she occasionly comes off that one of our other ducks has become a bit dominate aggresuve with her... would she possibly kill the duckling? Would we need to seperate them? My dream is to have a lovely family of ducks with a mama and ducklings all peacefully living together lol...


Sorry lol alot of the above is me just rambling on. Any tips on what should be down and not done?

 

[Jenbirdee]

You can put a little fence around the dog house nest area to keep them safe. I’ve been getting little dog pens on Facebook marketplace like this I got a few and hook them together

 

[DaffytheDuck20]

You can put a little fence around the dog house nest area to keep them safe. I’ve been getting little dog pens on Facebook marketplace like this I got a few and hook them together

Like this? We will probably also be letting her and ducklings out to the small run (which is enclosed) when other ducks are out in the day-when ducklings hatch.

 

[Jenbirdee]

View attachment 4231057View attachment 4231060
Like this? We will probably also be letting her and ducklings out to the small run (which is enclosed) when other ducks are out in the day-when ducklings hatch.

Beautiful! What a sweet little duck

 

[TheChickenGirl16]

She’s beautiful!
You’re right. A lot of my broodies work on rotation. So yes, let the biggies out, and then let the smalls play in the run! Even if it’s only for an hour or two.

 

[DaffytheDuck20]

Beautiful! What a sweet little duck

Thank you!! She's a good little duckie

 

[DaffytheDuck20]

She’s beautiful!
You’re right. A lot of my broodies work on rotation. So yes, let the biggies out, and then let the smalls play in the run! Even if it’s only for an hour or two.

Awsome will def do that

 

[DaffytheDuck20]

So... little update on this, at first I got the hatch date wrong, because at first when she went broody I was expecting my parents to say no to letting her go on a and hatch them, but since they said yes I had to re-track the days and try and remember when she went broody But all is well, today when I went in to fix her feed+water up I beleive I saw some eggs zipping!!

Also my job is working at a poultry place and there was a little duckling that had a deformed leg. My boss said I could keep it as I have ducklings hatching. How would you introduce her to all the other ducklings and mama? My plan is when they are hatching I'll giver her some peas or something and sneek her in. Then hopefully everything will go well
Any thoughts?

 

[TheChickenGirl16]

Last time I brought more chicks to a broody, I just snuck in there and stuck it under.
MAKE SURE SOME HAVE ALREADY HATCHED!!
Don’t let her see it, just pop it under. Sooner rather than later, AFTER a couple of the ducklings have hatched.

Good luck!

 

[DaffytheDuck20]

Last time I brought more chicks to a broody, I just snuck in there and stuck it under.
MAKE SURE SOME HAVE ALREADY HATCHED!!
Don’t let her see it, just pop it under. Sooner rather than later, AFTER a couple of the ducklings have hatched.

Good luck!

Thank you!!! Well, Bambi is a very happy Mama now, with 3 babies (including the deformed one, she welcomed it without question!) There was another external pip but what happned is yesterday morning she had left the eggs and they where all cold. We candeled and listened for any life and the one that had externally pipped i think was shrink wrapped... and all the others were either rotten or she just new they weren't gonna hatch.

One thing I am worried about is that now Bambi is limping :/ at first I just thought she was lying down because of the transition of broodyness from raising babies, but then I realised that she was limping. But I don't know how? She went from sitting on a nest to a contained space with her babies? How could she have of hurt her leg?