If a duck loses her babies less then a month after hatching them will she lay more eggs and try to h

[Angie Poo]

I have a mix breed female duck that is 3 years old. Every year she has tried to hatch eggs but something always happens. The first year she was able to hatch 1 baby and I was able to pen him up until he was old enough to run around. I think a combination between our livestock guardian dog and the neighbors dog were eating her eggs. The second year she hatched 5 but in less then 24 hours the dogs had got them all!

This year she layed her eggs right by the house but again the first group of eggs disappeared so we built a small pen around where she was laying the eggs so that she could go in and out but nothing larger then her could get in. She was able to hatch 3 ducklings and much to our surprise 3 chicks lol sadly less then three weeks later they escaped out of the temporary pen and are all gone.

So now I am off to the store to buy fencing material to build a pen for all the ducks.

Now here is my question. Since she lost her babies do you think she will start laying again and try to hatch more or is it getting too late in the year? I don't know what breed she is. She is grey with a little white on her chest and about the size of my ancona hen.

 

[learycow]

It sounds like you need a coop or other safe shelter for her. You will have much better luck with the eggs and ducklings if they are safe from everything and cannot get in harms way. Plus, if she hatches some babies that don't get eaten, she wont have a reason to get stressed or discouraged which can cause her to stop laying or give her reason to not hatch any.

Depending on the breed of your duck, she may or may not lay eggs again. It doesn't sound like she is a call duck, but if she is then don't expect more eggs until next year as they are seasonal layers.
If she is more of a larger breed of duck, then she may lay eggs but may or may not go broody. Some ducks only go broody in the spring and summer. Some will lay on eggs whenever they want.

I would give her a few weeks before I would expect eggs again as they tend to take 3-8 weeks off (depending on the duck) as they need to eat and gain some weight before laying again (most broody ducks don't eat as much when setting so they lose a lot of weight and then molt). By then it might be too late for her to set again, but you can always give her a chance to.

 

[Angie Poo]

Thank you so much! After the fair this week I will be building a secure pen for all my ducks I found out today that my duck is a blue Swedish hen.

I hope she goes broody again after she has a safe place to raise sone babies but if not there is always next year Once again thank you!