Might new Khaki Campbell mom foster Welsh Harlequin ducklings?

[emrldiz]

Hi! I'm officially new here - though have been prowling for answers and ideas for a trio of years as we started up our flock. So thank you sooooo much for all the info up to now! I'm crawling out from under my rock because I have a quick question I just can't find an answer to. I have a Khaki Campbell mom who just hatched 10 ducklings today as a crazy hailstorm blew in. She had nested under a maple tree while free-ranging, and after finding her there a week after she disappeared, we'd been watching her closely. We rapidly relocated the mom and ducklings to a chicken tractor with a heat lamp (and box w/bedding, water, feed, etc.) to keep them out of the hailstorm and safer from the other ranging chickens and ducklings. But I also have 5 Welsh Harlequin ducklings in my basement - 8 days old. Do you think there's any chance the busy mom might let these 5 join her crowded bunch or should I just house them separately for a while? The baby duck crowd (and momma) will be allowed out into a 1/2 acre fenced yard away from our other ducks and chickens during the day with plenty of room to forage as they get older, but will be closed in the chicken (duck) tractor at night.

Thank you so much!!!
Heidi in WA
with 1 hubby, 3 homeschooled kiddos, 5 elderly Alaskan huskies, 19 assorted layer chickens (Marans, Delawares, RIRs, Ameraucanas, Bl Australorps, Welsummers, Barred Rocks, Wyandottes, one funny Polish), 1 chivalrous Black Australorp roo, 4 - 8 day old chicks (Buff Orp, Cuckoo Maran, Ameraucana, Golden Lakenvelder), 10 Khaki Campbell hens and one drake, plus the 10 new Khaki babies and 5 Welsh Harlequin babies.

 

[70%cocoa]

Hmmmm...8 days old is pretty old. I know that if we were talking about chickens here then I would not attempt it. A chicken hen would be very unlikely to accept chicks of that age and may even attack and injure them. I'd expect it'd be the same with a duck hen. So I'd play it safe and keep them separate.

Congratulations on your new babies!

 

[emrldiz]

Thank you so much for the expertise! I haven't hatched many chickens and no ducks so wasn't sure here. I was a little worried that might be the case, with ducklings that were a bit older/bigger and also a different color. We've got another chicken tractor and they could be out in the same area, different tractor. Maybe quack across the distance and make friends.

Thank you again!
Heidi

 

[70%cocoa]

Putting them near to eachother is a great idea. At 8 days of age there is potential for them to get cold outside though and they'll need a source of heat so they can get cosy when they need to. Where are they living at the moment? Is it still cold where you live? Maybe you could put them outside in the tractor with a heat source for a few hours on sunny days until they are old enough to stay in the tractor day and night.

 

[emrldiz]

Okay, well... my dad would tell you that I rarely just listen and do as I'm told...

Khaki Campbell ducks aren't SUPPOSED to be good moms, but this one is. So I wondered if maybe she hadn't read the manual on her other expected qualities either. So, since we have a very controlled environment with the chicken tractor, I though I'd just try it. We took the Welsh Harlequin ducklings out to the tractor (from my basement) late this morning and gently placed the biggest of them in the grass in front of the nest area. She wandered around a little, then made for the nest, nudged uncertainly around mom and the other ducklings and snuggled in. All seemed well, so I gradually introduced the others, one at a time. Each time I made an addition, momma snapped at me and tried to protect the new ducklings from me. After all were in, we watched for a bit. I got concerned that the WH babies were trying to eat the bedding, so opened the top again and tried to move the food closer so they could find it. Momma gathered ALL of the ducklings way behind her so I could hardly see them and did that open mouth momma quack/hiss at me.

So we left them alone for just a bit, went to gather eggs from the coop and do a couple of chores. Came back to peek at the babies from afar and momma had them all out, showing them where food and water were. We watched all of them drink and toddle back up the ramp into the nest. After math we zipped back out again to make sure all were getting along and were accepted, and all seemed happy! They were wandering around the tractor, with momma watching from the middle of the pack.

And just now, it's a whole bunch of fuzzballs happily patrolling the tractor - tall yellow ones and little khaki ones! With momma standing guard and quacking little instructions. Hooray!!

I have a warm little box for them with pine shavings (and yes I saw the post about eating shavings... so am considering just building a big nest full of straw instead, though I hate to disturb them yet again). And for extra insurance, there's a red heat lamp in there too. It shouldn't be too cold here at this time of year, BUT that freak hailstorm yesterday blew in cold, cold weather and we had hail on the ground until about noon today. So just in case mom doesn't have enough heat for all 14 of them, they can move to the front of the box and get a little lamplight.

Thanks again! It's good to be cautious about this even though it seems to be working all right at the moment.

 

[Wifezilla]

Awesome! Your job just got a lot easier, didn't it?

 

[70%cocoa]

That's fantastic! What an exceptionally good mother.

 

[DurhamDuck]

That's great! What a good mama she is to all those babies!

 

[shantibirdy]

Thanks for sharing your wonderful story! I loved the clever way you introduced them one by one; the way I got my own six kids. Way better than all at once!

Hope the adoption continues to go well!