Call duck hatching babies--any care advice?

[Gooseypoo]

My little one year old call duck hen was determined to sit a nest so, to keep her from hiding somewhere off in the woods (like she was trying to do) I set up a cat kennel in her stall in the barn so she could nest there.

Today her babies are just starting to hatch!

I went in to take a peek and there are two fluffy yellow faces so far. I don't want to disturb her too much so I left her alone and will check again before putting everyone in for the night and again tomorrow morning when I let everyone out.

Does anyone have any advice about letting a mama duck raise her own babies?

She's a call duck, which, as I understand it tend to be better mothers than other breeds. Still, I am concerned as all our birds (3 calls--a drake and two hens--2 larger ducks [hen and handicapped drake] 5 geese and a bunch of chickens) are free range. They are all hand raised, so come when we call them, are very friendly etc. But these little guys are TINY and everyone else is pretty big!

I have a fenced in area that I was thinking of confining them to be she can fly and I'm concerned that she will just abandon her babies if she decides she really wants to get out. I'm going to put a small pool near the barn for them though, so they don't have to compete with the geese and the bigger ducks for bathing time.

Should I set up something for her in the barn? Will she be likely to come right out as soon as they're done hatching or will a little pan for bathing encourage her to stay in for awhile?

I welcome advice from anyone with experience here.

 

[Going Quackers]

I would definitely separate her and the babies. I even did this within my call flock(I had a large pen of females, who often all nested in different areas or shared nests)

ALso very big caution on the pools, while they swim well getting in/out can be a concern, i switched to cake pans lol while mine were small then slowly worked my way back up.

Good luck! they are the cutest things and i found all my mums to be excellent.

 

[Gooseypoo]

Yes! I have a cake pan for them too (it's what I used when their parents were babies).

She hatched 7 so far (there's at least two more eggs in there) and everyone seems to be doing well. I kept them shut in their stall this morning since that seemed to make her more comfortable. She showed her babies the food bowl and they all climbed into the water pan. Afterwards she herded everyone back into the crate with her nest to sit and get warm.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Right now I have 5 Drakes and 7 Hens. The Hens are all pretty large. 4 of the Drakes are Call Drake and very small and the other is a small Mallard/Rouen mixed Drake. Does anyone know if the smaller Drakes will try to over mate my large Hens or hurt them next spring when it is mating season. I wasn't sure if the Calls being so small could hurt the bigger Hens or not. The Calls are young right now and just got their Drake Curls.