How do you break a broody duck?

[steffpeck]

We have a duck that is sitting on unfertilized eggs. How do you break a broody duck???

 

[Bleenie]

I have heard that you can use an old cage and mount it on the wall and move her eggs to there so she will start sitting on them in the cage. But because of the open bottom of the cage she cannot keep them warm so after a while she will give up on trying.

I havent tried that method but in the past i have either removed all the eggs or removed their nesting box... my ducks are VERY picky about where they sit though & will have a fit if someone steals it or i take it, lol.

 

[Kelebek]

I had to give mine some fertilized eggs to hatch out and a few that were not fertile - then she was good - and left the nest

 

[Amiga]

I have three that started to go broody while I was away. There are still a few wooden eggs in the nests that I used to get them all laying in a nest.

For now, I am keeping an eye on them, occasionally shooing them off the nest so I can check for eggs and so they will go eat, drink, poop and run around a little. My expectation is that, as runners, they will sit for a number of days and then give up. They can be lured off the nest with breakfast, peas, fresh swimming water, and opportunities to forage in the garden, so it is not at all alarming to me.

Two of the broodies have stopped laying. But with eleven of them, and only two humans in the household, this is not a worry!

 

[suburbanduckmom]

My scovy goes broody and gets too skinny from not eating or drinking so I can't let her stay on infertile eggs. I CAREFULLY take my scovy off the nest and put her in the pond to distract her. Then I take out the nest box and the wooden decoy egg. If I don't distract her there is no way I can take the eggs. Be careful, those wings can be brutal. I bring her treats in the pond. When she goes back to the pen to find the nest she gets pretty upset but she gets over it. I put the box back in a few days later and she is usually fine for a few weeks.



We don't have males and I don't want her getting all skinny trying to wait for wooden eggs to hatch.