Flightless duckling with turkeys dilemma

PopeTato

Hatching
Jun 15, 2021
2
0
7
I have a peculiar dilemma:
My duck laid an egg in the turkey nest, and mother turkey hatched out a duckling at the same time as her turkey poults. She adopted, and they are doing impressively well together. It has been four weeks now, with almost no problems. They are free range during the day, and in a partial wire/partial solid wall outdoor shelter at night (same one they were incubated in) with no other birds besides the family. Today I encountered a problem, however, because the turkey siblings can now fly, but the duckling cannot. The mother now wants to roost with the babies, and the duckling was left on the ground, screaming. I removed the roost to force the family to continue nesting on the ground, but I figure this is not a viable long term solution.
I have never had a broody turkey hen, but have raised my turkeys with a heat lamp previously. While I have a little turkey experience, I have lots of duck experience, both with incubators/heat lamps and broody mothers. I know that ducks have strong sibling attachments, and it can be dangerous to leave them alone, especially at a young age. The duckling is very attached to her turkey siblings. I have no other ducklings to put her with, and the older ducks will be too aggressive with her if I put them in the coop together-she is starting to quack.

As a bonus, I have two little turkeys being raised in a box with a heat lamp (recovered as late eggs after Ma turkey left the nest) about two days younger than the duck and her outdoor siblings. I have thought about putting her in with the them, or moving them outside in a run with her at night.

Any ideas?
 
Could there be extra ducklings somewhere like tractor supply? It would probably be good to go have it with other ducks so it will have some friends when you move if with the big boys. The problem I see is that the all little turkeys Should be perching soon and the duck can never perch
 
Since the duckling has never seen another duckling might be a good idea to try the turkey hatchlings with this duckling and add a mirror to the brooder somehow. so the duckling can see what she is. What they imprint on is basically what they think they are so hopefully the mirror would give her an idea of what she should be hanging out with when full grown.
 
Could there be extra ducklings somewhere like tractor supply? It would probably be good to go have it with other ducks so it will have some friends when you move if with the big boys. The problem I see is that the all little turkeys Should be perching soon and the duck can never perch
I doubt any stores have ducklings around four weeks old. Most for sale are just a couple days old. I would be hesitant to put the older duckling with the "newborns".

@Miss Lydia
I will give it a thought. Do you think there's any chance my duckling will bond to herself? :p
 
From my own experience my duckling have loved a mirror in their brooder they will lay in front of it. A single duckling probably more so. It's hard to say for sure since she is bonded with the turkeys if she will see herself as a duck but she will at least know what they look like when given the chance to meet them face to face. I had one of my Orpingtons hatched a Runner duck last year and my Muscovy hatched at the same time, I gave my Muscovy the Orps ducklings so there would be a friend for the other ducklings and the poor thing wouldn't think it was a chicken. I keep a mirror mounted to the wall in my coop close to the floor and my ducks love to look at themselves.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom