Khaki Campbell parenting skills

[Sunny Side Up]

I've observed many different hens brooding eggs and tending their chicks and found that some have better parenting skills than others. Would this be true of Khaki Campbells too?

I'd think that a breed designed for egg production wouldn't go broody often, and if so, may not have the full component of skills. One of my ducks went broody over 10 eggs but only 2 hatched. A few days later one of the ducklings was gone, I think a 'possum might have snatched it from their nest under a bush. Since then I've made her & her duckling go into the duck house at night.

The duck & her baby have been ranging the yard all day, sometimes alone together, other times along with the drake & the other 3 duck hens. They all seemed like one big happy duck family until today. The drake was chasing the duckling, now about a week old, grabbing it by the back of its neck, and even bit off a chunk of its skin there. He was actually carrying the duckling by the back of its neck for several yards before he dropped it, or its skin tore away.

The Mama duck had been acting like a good protecter, hissing & charging any person who got near her babe. But she wouldn't or couldn't defend her duckling from this drake.

I washed the duckling's neck and put blood-stop powder there. Since I don't have a spare enclosed pen where I could safely keep them together I'm keeping it in a rabbit cage with some baby chicks that are about the same age. It's not an ideal situation, but I can't think of a better one to keep the duckling safe until it's big enough to defend itself.

Is this typical duck behavior, or are these ducks lacking their full component of parenting skills? I have another Khaki brooding a clutch of eggs. Should I construct a separate pen for her to use with the ducklings she hatches, to keep them all safe?

 

[Soccer Mom]

If everyone is cool with the baby but the drake, I would segregate him until the ducklings are older.

She's still a good mama; she's just unable to protect the duckling from the drake.

 

[redhen]

Seperate the drake..

 

[Sunny Side Up]

If I had a place to separate a duck I'd keep the Mama & her baby together. If I tried to keep Webster, the drake, apart from the girls & confined he'd be very very upset & let everyone know about it.

This is good motivation for me to get yet another pen built, there will be time before my other broody Khaki, Myrtle, hatches her current clutch of eggs. I was happy to have found some fence posts in a discard pile, and already have some salvaged wire, so all I need to do is recharge the batteries in my cattle prod and get my teenage son to dig me some post holes! Then I can keep Myrtle & her ducklings happily & safely together until they get some good growth on them.

Right now I'm keeping the bitten duckling, Six, in a little cage with eight 2-week-old chicks. They have an ark in the grass during the day, and spend the night in a rabbit cage on the patio. They're all about the same size right now, and all getting along nicely. The duckling's neck injury is dry & healing, the chicks aren't pecking at it at all. Six certainly makes more of a mess than the chicks, but it isn't too bad since it's just one duckling.

If Six gets too big to be comfortable with those chicks I have another little pen of older chicks she can stay with until she's old enough to rejoin the duck flock.

And as for the Mama duck, Blossom, she didn't seem too distressed to have her duckling taken away. She's back to business as usual, hanging with Webster & the other ducks, and thankfully, back to laying eggs. Six seemed a little upset & peeped for Mama a little bit, but now seems content with her new chick flock-mates.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Six is going to come to believe he's a chicken. Let's hope for your chicken's sake he turns out to be a hen.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I checked Six this afternoon and I'm fairly sure she's a SHE! Which is fantastic, because I can't keep any more drakes here, just the hen ducks, to lay more tasty eggs.