Ducklings Hatching -- Help!

[JenniferK]

Our Black East Indies has been sitting on her eggs, and last night I heard peeping. She's nesting under a little dome inside the ducks' nighttime house, and a little while the kids yelled at me that one of the ducklings was out. Sure enough, it was out running (stumbling) around the duck house, as far from the mom as it could get. So we picked it up and cuddled it for just a minute (maybe that was a mistake, but how could we resist?), then put it back in the dome with the mom, and it immediately came running back out to us. So is there a chance that the mama duck is still bonded with it, or should we be getting our brooder ready? I think she's still waiting for more eggs to hatch.

 

[FenDruadin]

I would leave the duckling! They are smarter than they look at that age and as long as the little one can't get out in the world & get hurt, he will eventually go back to mama. He followed you because you are moving--their instincts tell them to follow anything that moves. Mama duck is the best possible mama for the little one.

Of course, if you just really *want* to raise ducklings in the house you can, but they are smelly and stinky and a single duckling will be lonely and miserable and have a harder time re-integrating with the flock later. But once a couple have hatched, if you want to bring them in the house so they'll bond with you instead of the mother duck, there's not really any reason not to. Just a matter of preference.

Good luck. I think she will do just fine.

And congrats!!

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Congrats, just make sure the duckling can't get through any holes. I would lock the ducklings and mama in together, so nothing else can get to them. She cannot protect it while she is still hatching. Good luck.

 

[JenniferK]

Thanks for the good advice, both of you. We left the duckling for about 15 minutes and it did go back to its mama, to the heartbreak of my daughter! They are shut in the nighttime house which has 1/2" welded wire on one side and plywood on the other, so nothing can get them now. My dilemma is what to do at night, since we have to put the big ducks in there. The mama and babies are sort of protected in their own little den (can you see the blue cat box top in the right of the picture? It's now in the indoor side of the house) but I don't know if that's enough to keep them safe from the others. I'm wondering if I need to rig up some kind of divider for a while...

 

[JenniferK]

Update -- we knew about the one duckling that was out and had caught a glimpse of one more today, but this evening the mom was totally anxious to come out, even though she had food and water in her enclosure. So we let her out and she ran off through the yard (leaving the baby), so we checked her nest and found the other one dead, and no sign of others. So it seems like she's not into being a mom, and there is only the one duckling. Should we bring it inside?