Just wondering if anyone has any experience with using a chicken to hatch duck eggs? I have a hen who loves to be mommy more than she likes to lay eggs. In decemeber I tried to hatch to pekin eggs in an incubator, with no luck :-( The beginning of Jan my motherly hen went broody again... So Friday Jan 3rd I gave her 4 ducks, and the next friday I gave her 3 chicken eggs. So tomorrow we should be coming up on hatching day... Will she freak out when / if ducks hatch and they are "not" chickens ?? Do I need to be watching her non stop and pulling them as soon as the eggs crack? She is a good momma, so I gave her chicken eggs also, so that it would not all be for nothing for her, I will let her keep her 3 chicken babies. Thanks for sharing any experiences
I used to have a chicken that would hatch my goose eggs better than the geese that laid them. She did fine with goslings and chicks in tow. The only issues I had where: -she was very unhappy the first time the goslings decided to go swimming in the water bowl and one of her chicks decided to swim with them. Everyone came out fine, thank goodness. And... -when she decided to take them to roost. Waterfowl don't do that, so the goslings were pretty upset they couldn't be with their "mom". By that time they were just about bigger than her anyway Good luck
thanks for the reply... I did find some old threads here from a few years ago, where people were talking about their chickens raising ducks and doing real well with it. Which is a relief. I plan on taking them from her anyway as I want them to be very social with us (people). But my big concern was if I was not around the second they hatch... would she harm them. It sounds like from all I have read they should all be alright. I added three chicken eggs so that she could still be mommy and not be too upset if she wanted to "keep" the ducks.
I have a three year old silkie cross hen that has hatched turkeys, ducks, geese, and of course chicken eggs..... I was a little worried what would come of it when she stole the goose's eggs. It was rather funny seeing how angry she got when the goose tried to steal them back. From beauty to the beast in less than a second!
