First broody duck!

[PekinDiaries]

Hello friends! Our female runner, May, has just gone broody. We left her with her eggs to pile up hoping that it would stop her from laying (she is less than a year old and she had quite a few softies even though she has free choice to a bucket full of oyster shell).
Before she went broody, she started doing this thing where she would run around with her mouth wide open, and she would quack without closing it in between quacks. We thought that this might be stress or being defensive because of the eggs.
Our question is, should we keep her with the eggs? Its getting closer to winter and temperatures are dropping quickly. We are concerned that she may lose weight that she would need for winter.
Thanks in advance!
-Ryan and Vanessa

 

[farm316]

I would remove the eggs,

If you let the eggs pile up than it encourages her to keep being broody. Ducks in the wild lay egg after egg and won't stoop sitting on them until they hatch.. You might wanna try putting her in a different cage so that air can travel up her legs, that normally stop broody hen's. It unables them to keep that part of them warm..