Chicken hatched duck eggs....now what???

[cfortier]

Hi everyone. I'm so happy to announce that my Welsummer chicken just hatched 3 of my Welsh Harlequin duck eggs. The ducks are not very good sitters, but the chickens are. So we slipped some fertilized eggs under one of our chickens when she went broody, and now we have 3 baby ducklings.

Do i need to separate the babys to a heat lamp area like when I raised the ducks and chickens until they are all feathered out and old enough to be out in the real world?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Monkeybean415]

You can just keep them with your hen. She'll keep them warm- no heat lamp needed. I've never done it but have friends who have. It's an interesting thing to watch since chickens and ducks have such different instincts. Just wait and see when the babies go at some water! Good luck and be sure to come update us

 

[cfortier]

Thanks Monkeybean415. I think we may have to separate the momma chicken and the ducklings. The chicken house is up on tall legs - so it was off the ground and it has a ramp which is about 3' in length. I fear baby ducklings wont survive that fall, so i guess it may be best to put them in a small house on the ground until they are big enough. I'll post pictures later today after the rest have hatched and i have a break from work.

 

[Monkeybean415]

We moved our broody hen and chicks out of the coop and into a brooder crate in the garage after hatching

 

[cfortier]

I guess I may have to do that too. I dont want mommy chicken getting any skinnier. She's lost weight during this whole ordeal, and I dont think she's been off of the ducklings all day today. I guess I'll have to move her to the food for a bit but will wait until the husband gets home so he can see the babies too. Thanks for your advice. Looks like we have some work cut out for us this weekend.

 

[Monkeybean415]

for the first couple days they'll stay hidden under her. And you won't want too be her until you're sure all the eggs have hatched. I hand fed mine during that time because she was hungry just unwilling to get up I also picked the water up so she could reach it

 

[Monkeybean415]

We have another hen about to go broody and I'm trying to convince my husband to let me
Hatch duck eggs.

But we just got 27 more chicks today so thinking its a no lol. We still need to expand our coop as it is

 

[tkoutdoors]

Our chicken just hatched 4 of our ducks. These are our first hatches so we are completely clueless... TIA