This is going to be a bit long-winded, so let me apologize for that before we begin. I DO have a question, but there's a bit of a back story that I think is important.......
Last summer my neighbor from across the road gave me 6 young Muscovy ducklings; fully feathered, but not yet flying. I kept them penned with 3' chicken wire and everything was fine for a couple of weeks until they learned how to fly. Then, they would fly back across the road and hang out with the old gang. I clipped their wings, moved their pen (increased to 4') back by our pond, and everything was great for a month or so.
When colder weather hit, they started WALKING across the road, pretty much daily.
I would go over, chase them around with a big net, and then bring them back home. 
After a couple of weeks of this, I gave up and told my neighbor they were hers again...the daily running around her yard was just getting to be too much. I really wanted some ducks but these seemed to be imprinted on the neighbor's yard as their home.
Then, this spring, two of the ducks came back! (I think they believed they migrated for the winter!) One of the ducks, Mallory, goes back and forth every couple of days. I've accepted this and moved on...what else can I do??
I've never seen Sweetpea go over there, but I can't say she doesn't; I work away from home so who knows WHAT goes on when I'm not around??
A couple of weeks ago, I found Sweetpea setting a nest of 5 eggs in a hollow tree on our property. I figured I'd let her be, although I didn't have any faith they were fertile since I've never seen her across the road with any of "the boys," but I sort of figured my best chance of having ducks that actually stay HOME is to have them hatch out here. Then, 3 days ago, I realized I hadn't seen her in a day or two so I checked her nest and it was empty...no duck, no eggs. I assumed something must have gotten her and her eggs.
Yesterday, my neighbor sent me a photo of Sweetpea setting a nest over in HER yard! She said there's about 4 or 5 duck eggs and around the same number of chicken eggs! My neighbor told me that the chicks will hatch before the ducklings and, when that happens, the rest of the eggs typically get abandoned. Besides that, I was hoping to have the ducklings hatch over HERE so they'd recognize THIS as home and not the neighbor's yard.
So, here's the question you've been so patiently awaiting: What do you think my chances are of successfully moving Sweetpea and her nest of duck eggs? (I'd slip the chicken eggs under one of the other broody hens or ducks.) I'm thinking she must really want to hatch some out since she took over someone else's after her eggs got snatched, but I also worry that, having had to abandon ship once already and start fresh, she might just figure it's too much work and give up.
So what do you think? If I do attempt it, what would you suggest to increase my odds of being successful?
Thanks so much, in advance, for any advice you can give.
Last summer my neighbor from across the road gave me 6 young Muscovy ducklings; fully feathered, but not yet flying. I kept them penned with 3' chicken wire and everything was fine for a couple of weeks until they learned how to fly. Then, they would fly back across the road and hang out with the old gang. I clipped their wings, moved their pen (increased to 4') back by our pond, and everything was great for a month or so.
When colder weather hit, they started WALKING across the road, pretty much daily.
I would go over, chase them around with a big net, and then bring them back home. After a couple of weeks of this, I gave up and told my neighbor they were hers again...the daily running around her yard was just getting to be too much. I really wanted some ducks but these seemed to be imprinted on the neighbor's yard as their home. Then, this spring, two of the ducks came back! (I think they believed they migrated for the winter!) One of the ducks, Mallory, goes back and forth every couple of days. I've accepted this and moved on...what else can I do??
I've never seen Sweetpea go over there, but I can't say she doesn't; I work away from home so who knows WHAT goes on when I'm not around??A couple of weeks ago, I found Sweetpea setting a nest of 5 eggs in a hollow tree on our property. I figured I'd let her be, although I didn't have any faith they were fertile since I've never seen her across the road with any of "the boys," but I sort of figured my best chance of having ducks that actually stay HOME is to have them hatch out here. Then, 3 days ago, I realized I hadn't seen her in a day or two so I checked her nest and it was empty...no duck, no eggs. I assumed something must have gotten her and her eggs.
Yesterday, my neighbor sent me a photo of Sweetpea setting a nest over in HER yard! She said there's about 4 or 5 duck eggs and around the same number of chicken eggs! My neighbor told me that the chicks will hatch before the ducklings and, when that happens, the rest of the eggs typically get abandoned. Besides that, I was hoping to have the ducklings hatch over HERE so they'd recognize THIS as home and not the neighbor's yard.
So, here's the question you've been so patiently awaiting: What do you think my chances are of successfully moving Sweetpea and her nest of duck eggs? (I'd slip the chicken eggs under one of the other broody hens or ducks.) I'm thinking she must really want to hatch some out since she took over someone else's after her eggs got snatched, but I also worry that, having had to abandon ship once already and start fresh, she might just figure it's too much work and give up.
So what do you think? If I do attempt it, what would you suggest to increase my odds of being successful?
Thanks so much, in advance, for any advice you can give.
