Help with hissing ducks?

[Its ME]

i recently bought a trio of silkie feathered call ducks and I have put them in my brooder for now since it’s so cold outside and I have kept the door shut besides when I go in there to feed other animals so they can cozy up but recently I’ve been trying to get close to them but they instantly start hissing and will fly all over the place if I get to close. Any ideas on how to calm them? Mealworms, perhaps?

 

[Sunshine Flock]

I hope you don't mind me chiming in. I don't have experience with ducks and look forward to learning about why they hiss.

But one thought is the brooder and being confined. I met a swan once whose partner was killed. The park ranger relocated the swan to a confinement pen, and she would hiss and get aggressive whenever he would approach. I could climb into the pen and she would gently and lovingly approach, but with him she was very upset.

She associated him with the painful experience of having lost her companion and her capture and relocation to a small confined space by herself.

How old are your ducks? What was their previous home like?

 

[Its ME]

They are about eight months old and I really don’t know about their previous home since they came across the United States to me. They really like their new place cause I’ll sneak up to the window and peek in and they are having the time of their lives but when I come in they go back into the corner. The person I got them from said they were a much timid breed and flighty so they must have an enclosed pen. The brooder they are in is very spacious as well and I have a screen door connected to it so I can just open the wood door and they can look outside and feel the air come through.

 

[Bridger Davis]

Wow @CarolinaSunshineFlock what an interesting story! You know, @Its ME , your breeder could be right. And if you weren't the one to raise them, they may need quite a bit of time to get used to you.... (tag help: @chickens really )

 

[chickens really]

Yep, it's time they need and the less you try forcing them to like you the quicker they will. Sitting low on a stool and not moving will bring them closer to you. Ducks are shy at first but way too nosy to not come in for a closer look.
Congrats.