Found a nest full of eggs outside of the duck house?

[Anime2lover]

If she really has gone full broody, I believe that she should want to stay on them (if their anything like chicken broodies) even all night. Is it not possible to let her just stay with them during the night??

 

[IceHax]

most likely those eggs are dead by now, since she couldnt keep them warm at night. What i would do is start collecting eggs from all the other ducks for up to a week, until you have around 10 eggs, i would then remove the eggs she has under her and move her into the duck house, where you will have to have prepared a clean nest box for her to sit into, with the eggs you collected. With a bit of luck she will start sitting on those. Then all you have to do is give her plenty of food and water, and the hardest thing, wait. After the babies are born just replace all the food in the duck house with the proper feed for the ducklings, until they are ready to switch to the adults' food.

 

[l3mmmy]

I guess we could leave her out at night. But she tends to just run inside with the others.

If she is full broody will she be sat on them constantly or would she be getting up every now and then?

 

[IceHax]

I guess we could leave her out at night. But she tends to just run inside with the others.

If she is full broody will she be sat on them constantly or would she be getting up every now and then?

she'd get up once a day, to eat, drink and bathe.

 

[IceHax]

but if she was already broody and you had her sleep in the duck house at night, chances are those eggs got chilled and died. As i said in my previous answer the best course of action would be to collect new eggs for her to sit onto

 

[l3mmmy]

Thanks so much everyone!

I think that’s what I’ll do.

They have a duck house at the moment but nowhere in there for them to nest as such. Will I need to create a ‘nest’ within the duck house to put the fresh eggs into? And how do I make one? Or do I just place them all together in there and hope she’ll get the idea?

 

[Knighstar679]

I used a upside down storage bin with a hole cut out. I put wood shavings in the bin and straw in the house. I had a couple so they could pick which they liked but my duck house is a little over sized where I can. You could likely even take an egg or two and put it in there for the idea to lay there to be sparked.

 

[IceHax]

Thanks so much everyone!

I think that’s what I’ll do.

They have a duck house at the moment but nowhere in there for them to nest as such. Will I need to create a ‘nest’ within the duck house to put the fresh eggs into? And how do I make one? Or do I just place them all together in there and hope she’ll get the idea?

having nest boxes would not only benefit your broody ducks, but your overall egg production in general that way the other ducks would produce much cleaner eggs as well! there are many ideas here on BYC on how to make cheap nest boxes

i found some good ideas for nest boxes here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/duck-nesting-boxes.472355/

here are also some chicken nest boxes, they are pretty much the same, but you wanna put the duck's nest boxes at ground level if i remember correctly.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-nesting-boxes-how-to-build-a-nest-box.47697/

 

[IceHax]

natural instinct will kick in if she is really broody, just give her a private place to sit on the eggs and she will understand what to do

 

[DucksOhio]

We recently acquired some Indian Runner ducks when we bought our new home as the last owners couldn't take them with them and we agreed to take them on. We have 3 females and 1 male.

For the last couple of weeks we thought that one of our ducks wasn't laying as we were 1 egg short everyday - then yesterday we found what I can only describe as a 'nest' full of eggs in a patch of overgrown foliage within their pen! It's quite well hidden.

What's going on here? Do Indian Runner ducks get 'broody' like hens? This is all very new to me!

If it helps we normally put them in their duck house just before we go to bed at night - maybe 10:00pm/10:30pm - and let them out around 8:30am.

I’ve had a couple ducks go broody. One is a runner duck.
I would remove the eggs...she’ll eventually move away.

Just me, but I don’t want my ducks to hatch ducklings for 2 reasons:

1. I know how to care for hatchery ducklings, but not for ones who are born to a mother duck. Would the mother take proper care?

2. I don’t want more drakes.