How to encourage ducks to have babies?

[Phisch]

Is there a way to encourage broodiness or do you just have to hope it happens?

We adopted our five khaki campbells from someone who had too many ducks. In their coop, they went from 2 to 13 ducks more rapidly than they expected! The ducks lived in a very large coop along with chickens and a mini pig so they were used to lots of different kinds of company.
At our home, they are cooped up at night with our chickens and free range during the day with them plus guinea fowl who sleep in trees above the coop (no amount of coaxing has convinced them to go back in at night once they made up their minds. The ducks seemed to have disturbed the order of things in the coop though there’s plenty of room.

The ducks do have a chosen spot for laying, mostly. One seems to be hiding hers though we consistently got three eggs daily from all three girls until a couple of days ago.

How do ducks decide when to go broody? Is there anything we can do to encourage it? These guys are friendly but not friendly enough to eat out of our hands. I’m hoping to get to hold and hand-feed little ones so they’re much friendlier than their moms and dads.

 

[chickens really]

Momma raised Ducklings will not be hand tamed. Momma will teach them to run from you. Plus momma will probably attack you if you try to touch the Ducklings.

 

[Phisch]

Well that’s good to know! I’ll leave them alone and admire the cuteness from afar.

 

[chickens really]

Well that’s good to know! I’ll leave them alone and admire the cuteness from afar.

How to encourage them to set. You leave the eggs in the nest and hope once she lays a clutch she will begin to brood.

 

[johntfs]

Well that’s good to know! I’ll leave them alone and admire the cuteness from afar.

If you want ducklings to pet/love/hand-feed/etc. your best bet is to buy day-olds from a hatchery/feed store or just put fertile eggs in an incubator. That way the ducklings will imprint on you as Momma. You'll need to deal with the eventual problem of introducing them to the rest of the flock when they're older, of course.

Another way that will take time is to just spend some time with the ducks and ducklings giving out food and waiting to show that you aren't a predator/threat. No guarantees but it's likely you'll eventually earn the trust of Mom and her babies - especially if you provide bribes/treats.

I mean, look at it this way, would you be okay if some stranger started picking up your kids or otherwise interacting with them? Figure probably not. But if that person was your friend or someone you trusted, it becomes okay. Like that.

 

[Beaglegal]

Momma raised Ducklings will not be hand tamed. Momma will teach them to run from you. Plus momma will probably attack you if you try to touch the Ducklings.

Yes I agree, I have 4 mama raised ducks and they are exactly as friendly as their parents. They come up to me for food, but run away if I try to get any closer

 

[Beaglegal]

If you want ducklings to pet/love/hand-feed/etc. your best bet is to buy day-olds from a hatchery/feed store or just put fertile eggs in an incubator. That way the ducklings will imprint on you as Momma. You'll need to deal with the eventual problem of introducing them to the rest of the flock when they're older, of course.

Another way that will take time is to just spend some time with the ducks and ducklings giving out food and waiting to show that you aren't a predator/threat. No guarantees but it's likely you'll eventually earn the trust of Mom and her babies - especially if you provide bribes/treats.

Be careful with approaching a mom with babies, your presence will stress her out, one of my mamas almost trampled her baby to death when I got too close.

 

[johntfs]

Be careful with approaching a mom with babies, your presence will stress her out, one of my mamas almost trampled her baby to death when I got too close.

Well, yeah. The key to this would be calm and patience. You have to earn the trust, not force the issue.

 

[Miss Lydia]

A lot of domestic ducks have had broodiness bred out of them too. Always an exception to the rule though. Try leaving the eggs an see if anyone takes the que, nothing more enjoyable than watching mama duck with her ducklings.

 

[Beaglegal]

Well, yeah. The key to this would be calm and patience. You have to earn the trust, not force the issue.

No matter how calm and patient I was, the mama ducks wouldn’t come near me with the babies. Once they were a month old it was possible to interact with them. If the OP wants friendlier ducks hand raising them would be the key.