Can you foster Mandarin ducks under calls?

[bemba]

Wanting to know if anyone has put Mandarin Duck eggs under calls, and let her free range them. Would it be possible for the Mandarins to home without being pinioned. I am in Australia, and once i found some wild duck eggs on the bank of a dam at my work, they were not in a nest, just out scattered around. I took 5 home and put them under one of my calls and 2 of the 5 hatched........ they were Australian mained wood geese, turned out sooooo much tamer than my domestic ducklings without really handling them. Call mum raised them and they turned out male and female..... they still live here to this day and come when called.... but are never locked up or messed with and they come and go as they please.

 

[1lpoock]

A lot of mandarin breeders will put the eggs under a broody chicken or a call duck. They are very good at hatching them out. They can raise the ducklings just like the mandarin hen would. However, I feel that once the babies can fly, they will most likely fly away. If you have a pond right by your house, then I'm sure they might stay around just like the mained wood ducks.

 

[destinduck]

Ive done it it works fine . As for manderins homing they may there but they wont here because strangelly enough they will follow our local wood ducks even thou they dont interbreed

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

I had very good results incubating them in my brinsea incubator. I prefer that, as opposed to a broody, as the broody can give up at any time and I cant directly moniter the humidity, etc.