Help...my Swede is brooding my Chicks...not Ducklings...

[Camelot Farms]

Oh dear. My Swede has decided to brood, which would be great except...

1) Her eggs arent fertile...no drake.

2) Her eggs arent even all hers...they belong to my Golden Laced Wyandotte Chicken!!

Lets assume that I am able to get at the duck eggs and get rid of them...stink bombs...ewww. What should I do with the chicken eggs? Let her keep them? What will happen...obviously she cant take them in the pond with her. Will she know that?

Oh my...advice please!

 

[ChickenToes]

She will get off the nest once in a while, and when she does, go in and grab the duck eggs and get rid of them. Let her hatch out the chicks. You can either take the chicks away from her when they hatch and put them in a brooder in your house, or fence in a little area for her where she can raise them but won't be able to take them in the pond.

 

[Camelot Farms]

Thank you! I was in a panic...as you could probably tell from my post...lol.

I will be stalking her all day now in hopes that she gets off that nest so I can get the potential stink bombs out of there.

*wink*

 

[ChickenToes]

No problem!

I feel your pain...my Mallard went broody last month and only about half the eggs she was sitting on were fertile, so every time I candled the eggs I ended up throwing a bunch away. Then, every other time the broody was off the nest, my chicken would go and lay another egg in that same nest. I only have one chicken, so those eggs definitely weren't fertile.

These birds definitely keep us on our toes!