Is there a way to encourage a mallard to go broody (Need help)

[Kryptic]

I have 2 broody hens, 1 decided to bury herself in the hay loft and hide her eggs from me. She is laying on 2 duck eggs and 1 rotten chicken egg, I candled the eggs and they're about 4-5 days along. My mallard always goes broody around this time, but a new mate is distracting her, she literally goes a mile down our creek, which she has never done. Anyways, my father does NOT want a chicken hatching out duck eggs and if he found out what happened he would throw them out and I don't exactly want to kill a developing duck. Is there a way to encourage my mallard, or for sakes my crested duck (She's also gone broody, she's just a horrible mom) to go broody? within days if possible? Anything helps, thanks.

 

[aart]

There's no way to make a chicken go broody, they either are or are not.
Not sure about ducks, but I would guess it's the same.
Especially if they are free ranged, which sounds like that's the case?

 

[Kryptic]

There's no way to make a chicken go broody, they either are or are not.
Not sure about ducks, but I would guess it's the same.
Especially if they are free ranged, which sounds like that's the case?

Thank you. I guess I'll just have to hope lol.

 

[nao57]

Well you've got options...

Separating the horrible momma duck after they hatch is possible. (Might be painful to watch at first...) This could let you use the bad momma duck up until a certain point to buy time, and for a backup if something goes wrong with other options. I'm not sure about you but I'm used to things going wrong in life. So I like to have backups.

If your property is big enough, or with some cover areas that are less visible, I'd see if there's a way to move things around to see if you can maybe make it less visible if your relatives see the chicken brooding over duck eggs. (Unless your father is pretty active in checking things. If he's too alert that might backfire.)

Or if you made the ducks and chickens broody at the same time, hurry and transfer the duck eggs back to the ducks near the end.

You could separate the mate that's distracting your broody duck into a different pen. But if he's a mallard too he might try to fly over it. (Clip wing option might be necessary.)

I wonder if you could try extra treats during the day to try to keep the mallard wanting to be near your property instead of down the creek a mile away? Might be fun to try.

Also...maybe you could try to encourage your ducks not to stray so far from your property anyway just because ... 'stuff happens'... Adversity seems to rule this planet sometimes. So maybe its a good idea to address this now to try to keep them closer. But I'm not saying that foraging and encouraging foraging is bad. I'm also interested in the foraging results and what you might say about it. I'm just thinking that maybe eventually you'll run into predators... ?