Duck sitting on nest full of golf balls. Help! (Long post)

[chickens really]

I'm confused...
If laying eggs still then she isn't Broody at all.
Just adding to the mess of golf balls..
What actually is happening? Is she committed to the nest and only leaves once a day?...

 

[Jinglebells0518]

I'm confused...
If laying eggs still then she isn't Broody at all.
Just adding to the mess of golf balls..
What actually is happening? Is she committed to the nest and only leaves once a day?...

Today is the first day she has stayed on her nest. So I'm assuming she is no longer broody and is now incubating. But if we leave her overnight to be sure, there is a good chance she will be attacked overnight so we have to make the call today.

 

[Jinglebells0518]

Well, you can try that... It might possibly work, though the new nesting spot she picks may be no better, and possibly, even worse. Is there no place on your property that is safe for her, where she can at least see her drake buddies, that would be an ok nest spot? If not, then you need to build one somewhere, and then insist that she use it. You will have to be more stubborn than she is and consistently collect all her eggs and place them in the preferred spot. If it is somewhere where she can at least be enclosed safely at night, with or without her drake buddies, that would be good.

If we take all her eggs/golf balls, from her past actions I am confident she will just return to this same nest. We had a pen up when we were raising them but homeowners association in our private neighborhood required we disassemble it so we no longer have it. The drakes usually wait for her to lay but now that she is sitting, they gave up and left her so when she came off the nest for a break she went crazy they weren't there and immediately went swimming looking for them at their other hangout spot. I don't know what she would do if we closed her up at night and she didn't have the option to go find them. I'm thinking in this situation our best option is to continue to collect her eggs and stop replacing them so she maybe gives up on this nest and at least won't sit on it all night where she won't be able to escape.

 

[chickens really]

Today is the first day she has stayed on her nest. So I'm assuming she is no longer broody and is now incubating. But if we leave her overnight to be sure, there is a good chance she will be attacked overnight so we have to make the call today.

What...? Broody the entire time they set eggs, lay eggs , hatch eggs..if only golf balls lock her up to build a nest in the desired spot..

 

[Jinglebells0518]

What...? Broody the entire time they set eggs, lay eggs , hatch eggs..if only golf balls lock her up to build a nest in the desired spot..

Sorry I don't know duck terminology. I'm obviously new at this. I was under the impression ducks lay one egg a day in the nest and don't sit on them until they have the desired number they want to incubate? So she is broody but until today had only been laying and not yet incubating. There are golf balls and one egg. She is now incubating starting today. I'm quite sure she would not handle being locked up so my option is let her try to incubate herself or empty her nest and I'm leaning towards emptying the nest being the safest option

 

[chickens really]

Sorry I don't know duck terminology. I'm obviously new at this. I was under the impression ducks lay one egg a day in the nest and don't sit on them until they have the desired number they want to incubate? So she is broody but until today had only been laying and not yet incubating. There are golf balls and one egg. She is now incubating starting today. I'm quite sure she would not handle being locked up so my option is let her try to incubate herself or empty her nest and I'm leaning towards emptying the nest being the safest option

If she actually is Broody the thing she wants is privacy. She will not care to be with the flock...

 

[Jinglebells0518]

If she actually is Broody the thing she wants is privacy. She will not care to be with the flock...

Well she doesn't care while she is sitting but when she came off for her "break" she wanted to be with them. He eggs are definitely fertilized because we have some developing in the incubator now. Don't know if fertilized eggs consistently being laid in her nest qualifies her as broody?

 

[chickens really]

Well she doesn't care while she is sitting but when she came off for her "break" she wanted to be with them. He eggs are definitely fertilized because we have some developing in the incubator now. Don't know if fertilized eggs consistently being laid in her nest qualifies her as broody?

Hmmm. Don't humanize her. Lock her in. She will poop, eat and bath and back to the nest. Only as difficult as you make it actually...

 

[BreanneRN]

Well, it is your duck, you will have to "make the call"... But leaving anything up to her (the duck), who has already proven to have rather flawed judgement, is probably going to be a strategic failure. Still, they can learn from mistakes made, and her past behavior may not necessarily be predictive of her future actions. A broody whose eggs are consistently lost, stolen, or eaten, causing a failure in the plan to hatch will eventually try another location. In order to encourage her in the new location you choose, leave her eggs there and don't disturb her, maybe let her set on some. If she has a successful hatch, she will like that spot. I am guessing that the mentioned drakes are not yours? Since you have no control over them, maybe wild? Anyway, you are the "leader of the flock", make the call and be prepared to take measures to enforce your decision. If she is a young duck, she may be acting like a teenage girl, showing very poor judgement and making bad choices, but may eventually get smart and succeed at motherhood. Since you have eggs in the incubator, if she is still setting when they hatch, you can place some ducklings with her to raise, which will cause her to feel that her hatching attempt was a success.

 

[Jinglebells0518]

Well, it is your duck, you will have to "make the call"... But leaving anything up to her (the duck), who has already proven to have rather flawed judgement, is probably going to be a strategic failure. Still, they can learn from mistakes made, and her past behavior may not necessarily be predictive of her future actions. A broody whose eggs are consistently lost, stolen, or eaten, causing a failure in the plan to hatch will eventually try another location. In order to encourage her in the new location you choose, leave her eggs there and don't disturb her, maybe let her set on some. If she has a successful hatch, she will like that spot. I am guessing that the mentioned drakes are not yours? Since you have no control over them, maybe wild? Anyway, you are the "leader of the flock", make the call and be prepared to take measures to enforce your decision. If she is a young duck, she may be acting like a teenage girl, showing very poor judgement and making bad choices, but may eventually get smart and succeed at motherhood. Since you have eggs in the incubator, if she is still setting when they hatch, you can place some ducklings with her to raise, which will cause her to feel that her hatching attempt was a success.

All the ducks are "ours" but they were raised to adulthood and then released onto the lake. I really have no control over anything except collecting the eggs in the nest. The ducks do their own thing on the lake, come home for meal time, then leave again. They know we are a source of food and will eat out of our hands but as far as allowing us to pick them up and move them, not likely without a chase. They are all 2 years old so I guess "teenager".

Will the ducklings be accepted as hers if she is setting? Or will they be attacked. I was worried about them being beat up on.
Unfortunately any ducklings raised in the wild at this particular lake will not survive. We had 5 ducklings years back and they all died within one day due to predators and a wild duck had 5 as well and lost all of hers. We have not seen ducklings in quite some time. Just too much predation.

I'm going to make the executive call to remove half of the golf balls tonight and the other half tomorrow so she doesn't continue to sit. If she keeps laying great, if not, we have potentially 7 fertilized eggs in the incubator.