Indian Runner Just Hatched 8 Ducklings. Now what???

[Jenwa098]

Hello all! I am new here but have been stalking this site reading about care for my various pets. (Bourbon Red Turkeys and Indian Runner ducks.)

I have heard runners are notoriously bad at being mothers...However, I had one as a child who was a great "mom" and my husband had an IR hen who hatched 17 eggs all at once one year! So our experience with the breed has been different. We decided to let our little hen give it a go...and a go...and a go...(she gets very broody each spring.)

After two tries she has finally been successful and hatched 8 beautiful ducklings. She about took out my eye when I went to inspect them and seems very dedicated to them. Now I have several questions:

Then hen and ducklings are in a warm little duck coop which I close up at night due to predators. Will she be able to keep them warm enough or should I use a heat lamp? Nightly temps are about 45 degrees (F). Most of the ducklings appeared to have hatched early in the morning (they were dry and very active when I discovered them at 7:00 am) and appeared warm and comfortable in the same conditions and no lamp. She appears to be able to get them all under her at this point.

I want to remove the water and food at night due to fear of drowning (though the water is very, very shallow, I still have heard horror stories) and rodents have been a problem lately. I have read to have food/water available 24/7. If they are in the dark coop I doubt they would eat...hence going back to the first question...heat lamp? They would be without food/water each night for about 9 hours...Is that too long?

I removed the drake as he went after ducklings twice. He stopped right away and only seemed aggressive when he saw me approach. Did I do the right thing? My last drake was fine with the ducklings.

Thank you for any advice you might offer!
JW

 

[Amiga]

Heat wise I think she has it covered.

For food with water, I only brooded ours without a mom, so I hope others can offer their thoughts.

Any way to get mom and lings behind some half inch metal hardware cloth so no chance of rodent incursions? That would enable you to set a chick waterer in there with a little crumble.

 

[Jenwa098]

Thanks! I hadn't thought of the wire for the rodents. If I leave any food outside it is gross with droppings in the morning so I try to keep the area clean. So far I don't keep food in their coop for the adults, so I am just assuming rodents would try to get to it if I left food out. The mice are just terrible this year!

 

[Amiga]

Yes, some years there seems to be a population explosion! I am in the process of adding more one inch coated chicken wire to the Day Pen to keep uninvited food shoppers out. I do rake up what I can of spilled feed. But there seem to be maintenance items with ducks, and discouraging rodents appears to be one of them.