Is it too late in the year for my duck to go broody?

[arrowti]

Well, it finally happened. One of our duck hens went broody, and is sitting on a nest of eggs in our horse trailer (not sure how many, but I know for a fact there's at least one chicken egg I need to remove). It's August. Which means they won't hatch until probably early September, which means we'll have young ducklings during fall, when everything begins to cool...

Is that too late? Should I kick her off the nest and destroy it? Or should I let her attempt to hatch and see what happens?

 

[casportpony]

@Pyxis lives in your neck of the woods, maybe she can help.

 

[chickens really]

It's fine..Many friends of mine are still hatching till September. They are tougher than people think..

 

[HappyDancin']

I think it's fine, too! (Though, conditions in Maine are different than where I am, in Colorado, lol) I agree that the babies should be able to tough it out and feather up before it gets tooooo cold...

Do you plan to have your duck raise the babies or will you use a brooder?

 

[arrowti]

If it goes well, I plan on having the duck raise them. She has 4 eggs (there was a chicken egg to make 5 but I removed it). I'm thinking about adding 1-2 eggs from the coop to the nest.

 

[arrowti]

I guess I'll ask the question that everyone asks.

The duck sits on her nest all night, and all morning and afternoon. Late afternoon, around 3-4, she leaves the nest and doesn't go back on until sundown, around 7:30. When she leaves she heavily covers the nest in hay. The eggs are actually deep in in the nest, by several inches. They were still slightly warm when I checked on them.

When my chickens were broody they were off for an hour, tops, even in the beginning. I'm thinking because they're so covered and insulated that she's off them because it's okay, but just wanted to check if her being off for so long at a time is fine?

She spends the late afternoon with the flock, eating, drinking, swimming and doing normal duck things.

EDIT: Tonight, she decided not to sit on her eggs. She went over, went inside, and then left and joined the rest of the ducks in the coop. I'm not sure I'll incubate these eggs... I might try to incubate a bunch next Spring.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Just hard to know what is going on in their minds. Did she change her mind today and go back to sitting? @arrowti

 

[arrowti]

She did! She's been sitting on them since this morning.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Their def kookie lol

 

[chickens really]

Just Let her do her thing. Candle them in about 10 days and toss out the duds.