Help!! Muscovy Hen Acting Very Strange!!

[ellieguendalina]

Hi, I’m looking for advice about my recent mother duck - Guendalina.

My girl hatched 14 ducklings three days ago and has since been acting very strange, yesterday she seemed fine for most of the day and as evening approached she started to aggressively bite one of her smaller ducklings and not let it into the pen and got very angry (i have never ever seen her act this way, she’s usually incredibly kind and loving and calm) this resulted in me having to take the little one with me for the night - she accepted the duckling back the next morning and seemed to be happy about it’s returning.

But today she is acting unlike herself - she seems very stressed and really wants to get out of her run (which is large enough from momma and baby’s). I noticed she she wasn’t pooping in the pen (i’m not sure why) so i let just her out for a moment to poop which she did - at first she was trying to find a way to get her baby’s out with her.. after she had had enough trying she ran and tried to fly away..

Can anyone help with what I should do about her behaviour?
Should I increase her run more? or allow her some time out on her own?

Thanks for any suggestions!!

 

[sourland]

Can you provide a larger pen or is it possible/safe to release her and the ducklings?

 

[ellieguendalina]

we have started to extend the size of the pen which will be finished today thankfully! and we will let them all have an hour or so outside a day - our garden is pretty big so we are worried about loosing one of them!!

 

[Squackeysmom]

Can you provide a larger pen or is it possible/safe to release her and the ducklings?

Our female Muscovy hatched 9 ducklings and killed 4 of them so be careful.