ducks behavior upon hatching eggs? Help needed quickly!

[hereachick]

I have a duck that is setting on her own eggs and 5 from a silkie chicken. Earlier this morning I saw her run from the coop where she's been setting on the eggs with something in her mouth.She brought it to their pool and dropped it in the water, much to my dismay it sunk to the bottom of the pool, when we dug it out we found out it was one of the silkie chicks.Is this normal behavior for duck mothers? I thought baby ducks couldn't swim till they were older.Something to do with getting wet. Is this their way of cleaning up their young? Will she do this with all of the eggs? Help me please I would like to save the silkie chicks if possible.

 

[Pumpkinpup]

I have never heard of a duck doing this but if she has done it once I would watch her like a hawk and try to intercept any repeat performance with all haste. I am so sorry about your silkie baby. That is truly terrible. :aww

 

[LinckHillPoultry]

Maybe she was trying to teach it to swim...

Nah. Mother birds can sense things about their young, and if it's something they don't like, they will just let them die.
I would take the babies away once they are all hatched and raise them in a brooder. I find it the best possible thing you can do at this point.

 

[MandyH]

Ducks WILL drown their young if they sense something is wrong with it. BUT they also go into the water as soon as they dry off too. Maybe she thought it was an ugly duckling, maybe she was trying to get it to the water? Anyway, I would advise getting the chicks away from her asap and into a brooder.

 

[hereachick]

Thanks everyone! I went out to the pen this morning and the duck had 3 more silkies under her so we took them away and put them in a brooder with our other chicks hopefully they'll do ok so far they seem to be.The duck was mad but she'll get over it she has 1 more silkie egg under her so we're watching for that. The duck seemed to be ok with these chicks was sitting on them keeping them warm.Maybe there was something wrong with the first one. Thanks again for all the help.

 

[hereachick]

The last silke egg hatched yesterday afternoon. My husband actually saw the whole process said it was absolutely amazing, he couldn't even believe it! We took the silkie away just after it dryed it was only minutes old,put it in the brooder with the others and so far everyone is doing fine. Got up this morning and all 4 baby silkies were eating from the bowl and running around. the youngest is alittle weaker than the rest but, since it's not even a day old yet I'm not too worried. So the colors are 2 white,a gray, and what looks to be yellow.I'm so glad these little guys made it thanks again for the help.