How to integrate late hatched ducklings with others.

[The_spice_girls]

Hello all,

We let our 2 Khaki Campbells incubate their eggs. 15 hatched last weekend 5/31, but 2 of the eggs must have been rolled in from our other ducks late, since they didn’t hatch. I put them in a homemade incubator since the mothers abandoned the nest. They just hatched yesterday and today.

My question is, how should I go about giving the two ducklings back to the mothers. Should I wait a few days for the ducklings to regain some strength? I’m mostly worried that they are a week behind the other 15 and smaller, and maybe the mothers won’t look out for them. We live in Southern Michigan, so day time temps are in the 70s and lows are in the 50s.

Thank you for any help!

 

[Sc_chickengirl]

You can try to give them to the mothers but broody babies are tough so they may have a tough time being so much smaller.
If I were you I would probably just set up a brooder for them.

 

[The_spice_girls]

We ended up setting up a brooder. We tried to integrate them in but the mothers kept pushing one of them down and pecking, so they’re both together in the brooder now.