Broody duck not sitting on eggs

[Miss Cheep]

HI, I have a duck that we put muscovy eggs under. Her eggs and the muscovy eggs were started at the same time, the muscovy eggs take a week longer to hatch then regular ducks. So right now she has 5 ducklings and the muscovy still need to hatch. She is not sitting on them even though they are fertilized. What do I do?

 

[sourland]

You will have to incubate the eggs some way - preferably with an incubator. Fowl are biologically programed to leave the nest within 24 to 36 hours of the first chick/duckling that hatches. This assures that the mother can lead them to feed.

 

[Miss Cheep]

I would like to do that, but if the mother doesn't hatch them herself then they won't have a mother to take care of them.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

HI, I have a duck that we put muscovy eggs under. Her eggs and the muscovy eggs were started at the same time, the muscovy eggs take a week longer to hatch then regular ducks. So right now she has 5 ducklings and the muscovy still need to hatch. She is not sitting on them even though they are fertilized. What do I do?

Of course she’s not gonna sit on them. In her mind, her ducklings have already hatched. She’s not gonna wait around for eggs that will take a whole week longer! In the duck world, it’s first come, first served. She needs to tend to the ducklings that have already hatched, so that is what she’s doing.
She’s not gonna sit on them anymore.
She doesn’t know or care that they’re fertile.
If you want to save the eggs, though they’ve likely already died, get them in an incubator.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

I would like to do that, but if the mother doesn't hatch them herself then they won't have a mother to take care of them.

Have you ever brooded baby birds before?
You stick them under a heat lamp and give them food and water. They don’t need a mama.

 

[Miss Cheep]

Yes

Have you ever brooded baby birds before?
You stick them under a heat lamp and give them food and water. They don’t need a mama.

Yes I have. I would rather have a mother take care of them now because it is winter, a mother would do better than us at taking care of ducklings.

 

[Miss Cheep]

She sits on them at night but not at daytime. Will they just take longer to hatch? Or are they dead?

 

[TheOddOneOut]

She sits on them at night but not at daytime. Will they just take longer to hatch? Or are they dead?

Dead. How many days has it been since she stopped trying to hatch them?
I’m sorry, but you really should have done your research.

 

[Miss Cheep]

She stopped trying to hatch them yesterday. We thought that she would keep sitting on her nest for longer to keep her ducklings warm and also keeping the eggs warm at the same time.

 

[Yardmom]

Next time start the muskovy eggs first. If she has been off all day, and you have winter type temperatures the eggs are not likely to hatch no matter what you do at this point.