Khaki campbell: Too broody, too soon?

[thunder duck ranch]

Greetings! We have been raising Khaki campbells for a little over 3 years now and enjoy it tremendously!

Lately our girls have caught the broody bug. One Mama hatched 7 of 12 eggs the week of May 18th and, as best I can tell, is due to hatch batch #2 in about 10 days. Is this unusual for a Mama to go through 2 cycles so fast? She was an excellent mother to her 7 - very protective and attentive, and up until about days ago, even allowed her 'kids" to join her in her brooding house. I appreciate the increase in ducklings, but I do not want her to exhaust herself.

Our set up is pretty natural. We have a "pool" for bathing and cooling off and a 70x70 fenced in pen with an optional duck house, should they choose to sleep there for nighttime control, but otherwise they have free run of our acrage. Do we need to keep her closer to home and somehow break her of this cycle? Or is this common?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ChickenToes]

I think as long as there are eggs to sit on, she'll stay broody for awhile. To break her, take her eggs away. It may take a few days of taking eggs away from her to break her, but it will work.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
If she is truly broody there shouldn't be any eggs to take away from her.

 

[thunder duck ranch]

She's certainly broody! She is sitting on another even dozen, which should hatch July 8th or there abouts. So after those hatch, we should just take the eggs she lays right away? She's real sneaky in hiding them!

If we close off the brooding house, she'll just make a nest under the bushes like the other ducks.

I had heard that khaki campbells were not very good with overall mothering, so I feel blessed in having such a dedicated bunch of stay-at-the-nest-ducks! But increasing our flocks by 29 ducks in 2 months is quite an explosion! (And it would have been 41 ducklings, had we not lost a mother and her eggs on Saturday)