I have a flock of 14 hens--how will the other hens treat the little ducklings once they've hatched? And I'd like to move the ducklings in with the ducks eventually (four ducks, one drake). How would the ducks treat new little ducklings they've never seen before??
So should I let the hen raise them? Or let the ducks raise them? Or put them in a brooder until...? And if I put them in a brooder, how will they adjust to the adult ducks?
I've hatched two clutches of ducklings under broody hens in the past two months, and the ducklings have acclimated into the flock easily, but much of that probably has to do with the way my adult flock is kept. They're all backyard birds that free-range together, so the ducks and chickens are used to each other. My coop is a 4' x 10' section inside of a larger shed, so when my hens hatch ducklings, I keep them in a large wire dog kennel inside the shed next to the coop, and the ducks and chickens walk past the cage every day as they go in and out of the coop. For the first few days, the other hens and ducks are curious about the hatchlings and can be pretty bitey if they have access to them. At this point, mama is probably also still on the nest to allow for any late hatchers, so they need the extra protection of the cage. Once mama is off the nest and being protective of the babies, the rest of the flock mostly ignores them.
When the ducklings are between a few days and a week old I'll take them out for a quick swim in the water dish, and then let them dry in the sun. Mama usually hangs around while the babies swim, but has no problem with it as long as they're not upset (the first mama perched on the side of the dish and purred at them while they swam). Once the babies are dry, they may wander around with mama outside for a while, but I'll usually put them back in the cage after an hour or two (and I always supervise when they're under a week old). Somewhere between one and two weeks old, if the babies have been around the flock safely during supervised free range time and everyone is mostly ignoring them, I start to open the cage in the morning when I let the rest of the flock out, and they'll free range with mama all day. The ducklings always find the big ducks' pool on the first or second day, so it's important to make sure they have a safe way out of any pool or water dish you have around. I put bricks around the edges on the inside of the pool so that they have something to stand on if they get stuck in the pool.
I've introduced ducklings from a brooder into my flock, and that transition was a little more difficult. If you do that, you'll want to wait until the ducklings are close in size to your adult ducks, because they will be chased, especially if you have a drake. I would imagine the same would happen if you tried to introduce hen-raised chicks to a flock of ducks that are penned separately from the chickens. Regardless of how they're raised, if you have a drake, it will eventually start to chase the younger boys. I can usually sex my ducklings before their voices change just by paying attention to how my drake treats them. He ignores the girls until they're older, but begins to single out and chase the boys at 3 to 4 weeks old.
Whatever you do, don't hatch ducklings under a chicken and then try to have a duck raise them. My ducks were even thinking about going broody around the time the first clutch hatched, but they would have hurt and probably killed the babies if they'd had unsupervised access to them for the first few days. Unless your duck broods the eggs herself, or at least has been sitting on a nest for as long as the eggs were incubating, she's not going to have the necessary maternal drive to care for the babies.
As my ducklings have grown, they have seamlessly transitioned from their hen-mama to being part of the duck flock. My hen slept with her ducklings until they were about two weeks old, then started sleeping on the roost again. For a week after that, the ducklings slept in their cage, but by week 3 they started following the ducks into the coop at night. The mama hen was very devoted to the ducklings for the first two weeks, but by the time they were as tall as her (around week 3 for my bantam hen), they were relying on her less and spending more time in the pool. They just sort of seemed to incorporate into the duck flock gradually from there, especially flocking with them just before bedtime. Mama hen also slowly transitioned herself back into the chicken flock and started laying eggs again somewhere in week 3 or 4. Now they hardly seem to recognize each other, but everyone is happy with their living situation.
I would like to see if any of these are fertile so I put them under my broody chicken hen. I relocated her to her own hutch along with the eggs. She has been sitting on them for 3 days now.
