Duck in mourning advice?

[BeckyWilson]

I have a 2 year old female that lost her sister about 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure why her sister passed away. Now my girl has been broody and went after me when I went into the coop this morning. She has never laid on her eggs before this. Is it possible that she is mourning the loss of her sister? She is with 4 chickens and has been all her life but she isn't bonded to them. I'm not sure as to what the best course of action is. Should I try to buy an adult female? I have 2 ducklings that are 2 weeks old as well that are still in the house, I brought them out to see her reaction and she just puffed up and hissed at me. Should I wait until they are ready to go outside and introduce them all or see if she will take to them now? I don't want to stress her out any more or longer than need be.. any advice is appreciated.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome Yo BYC! You might try posting in the Duck forum about your girl. https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/42/ducks If she is broody, her behavior is pretty normal, so she probably is not depressed from the loss of her sister, she has not been broody very long and the other ducklings are probably too old to get her to adopt them. You could consider getting her fertile eggs if she is still sitting in a few days (easy way to get new duck into a flock), or getting some just hatched ducklings and trying to sneak them under her in a few weeks. Or just break her of being broody and introduce the ducklings you have when they are larger, can you house them side by side so they get used to each other?

 

[TwoCrows]

Birds can mourn the loss of a close feathered friend. But they can also move on. I would follow Kelsie's advice and post in the duck section for info on keeping ducklings with chickens. Sounds like she is broody and is possibly occupied with hatching eggs at the moment. I think she will be ok.

Great to have you aboard and welcome to BYC!

 

[drumstick diva]

I think she is broody also, and that has nothing to do with the loss of her sister. If she is hissing at the ducklings NO she doesn't want to meet them now and that is stressful to her. If you don't have a male duck - her eggs are infertile and will never hatch.

If you got some fertile eggs you could replace her "duds" with fertile ones and she will be able to hatch them and would consider them HER babies.

Ducks are messier than chickens and like to splash and be in water a lot they would do better in their own flock than being raised with chickens.

 

[gander007]