can a hen hatch a ducks egg??

[badnek]

my ducks never hatch their eggs so i put one of my duck eggs under my broody hen will it hatch and will she take care of it??

 

[jessishatley]

definitely! I had a broody hen hatch 4 chicks and 4 ducklings. She treated them as her own. They even went up in the Co at night with her when they got bigger lol! Good luck!

 

[roostersandhens]

Yes she will take care of them, broody hens will take care of them as if they were chicks (not ducklings). I'd put more then one duck egg under her maybe 4, then if only 3 hatch if 1 dies the others won't be lonely. If 4 hatched great! Usually 1 doesn't hatch though. I don't know what happens with one egg.
Good Luck!

 

[badnek]

tnx ill see what happens ill put more duck eggs under her next time

 

[heybarb]

I had a friend that hatched a duck egg under a broody hen. She said all went really well until the duck matured into a male mallard and he tried mating her bantam OEG hens (like the broody that hatched him). He killed two hens before she figured out what was happening. She had other ducks - so it wasn't a question of him not having access to female ducks - he just preferred hens! She gave him away to another friend that only has ducks and he hasn't really settled in...

Maybe hers is the exception, but she said she'd NEVER do that again!

 

[brairgirl]

She will raise them, we have 2 ducklings with a Barred Plymouth Rock hen.. She hatched them. But the problem I had was that the ducks eggs need higher humidity and their membranes were drying out and they were getting shrink wrapped :/

 

[jessishatley]

I had a friend that hatched a duck egg under a broody hen.  She said all went really well until the duck matured into a male mallard and he tried mating her bantam OEG hens (like the broody that hatched him).  He killed two hens before she figured out what was happening.  She had other ducks - so it wasn't a question of him not having access to female ducks - he just preferred hens!  She gave him away to another friend that only has ducks and he hasn't really settled in...

Maybe hers is the exception, but she said she'd NEVER do that again!

 

my ducklings never did that! Lol I still had the original drake for the ducklings and its like they figured it out eventually.... Even became a small duck heard around the yard. But they would all go up in the coop with the chickens at night. No problem on my end and I had pekin ducks which can be a bit feisty