So our Cayuga hatched out her ducklings about a week ago. We decided to use a kiddie pool, lined with puppy pads and shavings and placed inside the main coop (with the other birds), as the brooder. Now we're wondering if we should have put Mom & young'uns somewhere separate from the rest of the birds, including the other ducks. Mom seems to go out free ranging with the other ducks during the day, and we've not seen her preening the babies for days now, while one of the books we have says the mother should be doing that. I suppose it's possible that she's doing it at some point when we're not there to see, but.....how do you all keep your ducklings that have been hatched out by the mother? Would you remove them (with or without the mother?) from the "general populace", as it were?
Wow...I'm kind of surprised there are no replies to this....does everybody incubate? Does anyone even use a mother duck anymore? lol
Well I haven't had any breeding yet, but I think generally people who have a natural incubation seperate the mother and babies from the rest of the flock just to make sure they're safe from mean drakes/jealous females and any other things that can harm the ducklings As long as everyone's getting on okay and the babies seem fine it should be okay, just keep an eye on them so that you can catch any unwanted bahaviour and take action if needed to remove the mother and babies Some cute pictures might entice people in to help
What AdamD77 has said about wht some people seperate is correct- other ducks/ drakes can attack babies- however protective a mother may be. I have had to seperate my duck with babies from the others- and even remove babies from some mothers at times. As for the preening- my babies do just fine preening themselves- and I incubate most of my own eggs now.
I've only delt w/Scovies and I only separate my momma and ducklings, to some degree, for a few days depending on weather/crowding etc. fm the rest of the flock. I have a momma Scovy, Chloe, now w/14 ducklings that hatched out Sun/Mon. She was sharing the duck house w/4 other ducks at the time and once the 4 left in the a.m. I closed up the house until bed time just to give Chloe time to get those ducklings hatched w/out all those curious juvies poking about. Chloe was ready to take the ducklings out on Tues. so I let her, supervised for the first 15 min. or so as ALL the other Scovies wanted to check out the babies. I ran off a few bothersome young 3mo old drakes until Chloe had things under control w/the help of her mom, Charlotte, and two adopted juvie daughters then just checked on them on and off for the first few hrs. Those ducklings pretty much preen themselves as far as I can tell. It was so warm last night Chloe didn't even sleep w/her babies. She put them in the nest box all cuddled together then ploppled herself down in the next one on the corner so she could keep an eye on them. I love having my momma Scovies brood their babies. It's a joy to watch & learn how they go about "mothering." If your ducklings seem to be doing O.K. ( clean,fed,watered, hale and hearty....etc) I'd leave them w/momma and the other ducks. You won't have to try integrating them later if you are planning on keeping them. If they seem stressed then, yes, separtate them. If YOU are stressed about wheather or not they are being cared for properly... then go ahead and separate them. A lot of learning goes into managing your flock. What works for one person and their situation, doesn't always work for another.
