Broody Hen Question

[luvmychickas]

My black runner is super broody. She is sitting on eggs right now of hers that I don't know if they are fertilized or not. I ordered some fertilized duck eggs and have some fertilized chicken eggs as well. I was thinking of putting some of the fertilized eggs under her. Has anyone hatched out chickens with a broody duck? How many would a runner duck usually hatch out? I don't want to overwhelm her, but I would love to hatch some "naturally"

Thank you!

 

[greyhorsewoman]

Are you going to remove the eggs currently under her? You want to try to get the timing of the hatch coordinated. I had a duck hatch a chicken egg once (didn't realize a chicken had sneaked in there !) ... it was born a week earlier than the ducklings and the only time it left the nest was when it ran after her when she took her break to get some food and water. It was kind of sad, since it was the only chick with ducklings and they all went on the pond and left her behind.

If you are planning on removing the chicks into a brooder, that would probably be better than expecting the duck to raise up a mixed batch of chicks/ducklings.

 

[luvmychickas]

I am going to candle the ones under her now, but I honestly don't think they are fertilized. If I replace those with the fertile duck eggs or fertile chick eggs, I wouldn't put both under her

Thats what I was thinking of trying. Guess I am kinda thinking out loud here

 

[froggie71]

Wish I could help. We had our broodys sitting on duck and guinea eggs. Unfortunately none of the guinea eggs were fertile. The ducks eggs, well....some were fertile, some weren't and some quit. The Swede girls gave up their nest and gave to my runners (moved the whole nest including eggs over to them). 1 duckling hatched. Then the runners left their nest leaving at least 3 eggs behind that were still good. We put them in the bator with the chicken eggs we had in there, but 2 quit. the last one didn't have enough humidity I think. I kept trying to up the humidity with no luck. It hatched, but didn't live for long. So far our ducks have been terrible with hatching.

Have had much better luck with the bator. 1st batch of duck eggs. 16 of 16 hatched.

 

[luvmychickas]

Thank you so much for your response. Its nice to hear of others experience with it. I am waiting for my other incubator to come and my other hatching eggs as well, so as I wait, I was thinking. Of course it was like 3:00 a.m. when I was thinking about it LOL

 

[Dances with Ducks]

My broody chocolate runner hatched out eleven eggs in May. I'm sure she would have hatched twelve but a raccoon stole an egg a week before the hatch. It's amazing how many eggs those skinny girls can cover.