I am wondering if anyone else has the problem of their ducks ducking out (pun intended) and going broody in a mystery place?
We live in the midst of some very swampy woods, and let our ducks free-range during the day. I lost my blue swede girl two months ago when she disappeared without a trace into the swamp. We looked for days. A month later, we found her skeleton and the broken egg shells, dragged around.
Then my black east indie girl did the same thing! We looked all night. In the morning she had tired of setting and turned up. We never did find her nest.
Now my Welshie has done the same thing. I am so frustrated and depressed. She disappeared two days ago. There aren't many predators here (I live on an island) and the birds I have lost to raptors (admittedly only chickens) always leave behind a very vivid kill site, with shocks of feathers. We can't find the Welshie or a kill site.
As if three broody ducks weren't enough, while all this has been happening I had two girls actually go broody in a GOOD place: in their pen! They hatched out 18 ducklings between the two of them.
What am I doing to raise such broody ducks? Does anyone else lose their broody mamas this time of year? Should I not let them out of their pen any more? I feel like a failure... these are perfectly healthy, beautiful ducks that I have doted upon, and I hate to think of them sitting in the woods waiting for an owl to find them, but I can't find them!
We live in the midst of some very swampy woods, and let our ducks free-range during the day. I lost my blue swede girl two months ago when she disappeared without a trace into the swamp. We looked for days. A month later, we found her skeleton and the broken egg shells, dragged around.
Then my black east indie girl did the same thing! We looked all night. In the morning she had tired of setting and turned up. We never did find her nest.
Now my Welshie has done the same thing. I am so frustrated and depressed. She disappeared two days ago. There aren't many predators here (I live on an island) and the birds I have lost to raptors (admittedly only chickens) always leave behind a very vivid kill site, with shocks of feathers. We can't find the Welshie or a kill site.
As if three broody ducks weren't enough, while all this has been happening I had two girls actually go broody in a GOOD place: in their pen! They hatched out 18 ducklings between the two of them.
What am I doing to raise such broody ducks? Does anyone else lose their broody mamas this time of year? Should I not let them out of their pen any more? I feel like a failure... these are perfectly healthy, beautiful ducks that I have doted upon, and I hate to think of them sitting in the woods waiting for an owl to find them, but I can't find them!