Have broody duck but ............

[chooniecat]

I have two 3 yo welsh harlequin ducks, one 5 yo pekin duck and one 9 yo pekin drake and 1 of the welsh has gone broody(have never seen it in ducks but I ASSUME its broody) and found her last night on 10 eggs in brush pile so moved the eggs and her to the fenced area I keep the ducks in at night. I can only assume the eggs aren't viable because of the heat outside for last several days but will candle in couple of days out of curiosity. she has only managed to sit on the eggs overnight for last 2 nights(I couldn't find her the first night and found nest last night and moved to enclosure) Don't even know if a 9+ yo drake is viable but she seems to be the ONLY one he's ever romantically interested in. forgive me for rambling. thinking out loud sort of. My problem is I RARELY get rid of ANY animal I take on and if ducklings show up I will feel overwhelmed. How do you "de-brood" a duck?(IF I decide to dismantle nest?)

 

[larkflying]

Well, you could let her sit on just 3 eggs. Then if they hatched, you would have a controllable number of ducklings. If you don't want her to go broody, you can just keep taking the eggs away from her, and not letting her make secret nests out in the yard. I think she'll eventually stop wanting to be broody without any eggs.

 

[chooniecat]

yes-will candle tonight(not great at it but at least these are white eggs) and MAYBE wait a couple of more days to decide because probably nothing visable yet(don't really know-like I said-she didn't disappear until couple nights ago so counting from THEN I guess)