First duck hatch!

[Englishable]

After two years with chickens and guineas, we added ducks and geese last year. We have 5 female Rouens, two males, and a breeding pair of French Toulouse geese. About a month ago, 4 of the five Rouens and our female goose went broody and they've been sitting consistently on their eggs since. I wish I had been paying better attention, but I don't know the exact date they started spending nights on their nests, so I can only guess that it's been "about a month." We're hoping we have babies soon!

My questions: the goose and one duck are nesting almost side by side in the "infirmary" part of the coop, and another duck is in the main coop. Two of the ducks made nests outside, though our LGD keeps predators away so I'm not worried. I don't want to try to move anyone right now, but after the babies hatch (if they hatch), what should we do with them? Should we be worried about any of the other birds hurting the babies? The male goose and two male ducks all hang out together like a group of old bachelors (Sometimes the one non-broody female duck is with them, sometimes she's off on her own.) We could easily pen the two male ducks up, but what about the goose? Or the roosters?

We were originally planning on just collecting duck/goose eggs and putting them in the incubator, but had to wait until it was free, but by then they were all broody. Should we wait until one mama hatches all of her babies and then pen them? What about the goose? I kinda think she'd kill anything that looked sideways at her babies, and the male is really protective of her. He regularly breaks up fights in the yard - duck, chicken, dog He does not like commotion!

Ok, this has become a novel. How should we proceed? Thanks!

 

[sylviethecochin]

I would not worry at all about the goslings. I've never raised geese, but ganders are notoriously protective of their families. As with all first-time families, keep an eye on it, but I doubt you'll need to intervene.

I would be more worried about the ducklings. I have never had a drake hurt a duckling, but I agree that the geese might be overprotective and go psycho on the nearest defenseless critter. (My father had geese as a kid. He claimed that this does happen.)

As a kid, I had one duck run her babies to death, and had one get so stressed out by the hatch that she snapped her babies' necks. This is not common or the norm...but penning them up securely for a few days is probably your best bet.

I doubt you have to worry about the roosters. For one thing, roosters are generally pretty accepting of babies. For another, Momma Duck is probably going to be keeping everything well away.

Good luck!