Hello everyone. This is my first time posting here about ducks and in years! It’s a little bit of a longer post…
We have 5 ducks. 4 ducks and a drake. Void, our Cayuga, hid a clutch from us and started it a couple weeks before school got out. We found her and her clutch but didn’t have the heart to take it away. 4 th of July comes around, we aren’t in town (a friend is looking after our flock), and she gets scared off her nest not to return. 2 days later we come back and it looks like 5 “might” be viable (they still have clear defined blood vessels)? Crazy enough our runner duck (Shower) has formed her own clutch inside their pen (no clue when) and is hissing spitting broody (we’ve been gone for about a week and a half). I label Voids and Shower’s (thinking I’ll probably end up tossing Void’s) to keep track and to make sure no new ones make their way in. 8+ days later I’m ready to chuck them all and as I take them to toss Shower throws a fit. I candle and we now have 3 ducklings and a bunch of eggs. I have a top hatch incubator BUT, to add to the duck drama Fenna, our Rouen, decided to co-nest (co-brood?) with Shower… I looked under today and 2 ducklings were under Shower and 1 was under Fenna and they have split the remaining eggs between them. And now the original broody duck is starting to cover the eggs again….
Soo my question is, can the ladies work this out on their own? Will one of them take over the rearing and the other the brooding? (On our trip we spent the night next to a family of wild geese with many adults and goslings of various ages. ???) There’s is food and water for the ducklings right next to the nests….
We have 5 ducks. 4 ducks and a drake. Void, our Cayuga, hid a clutch from us and started it a couple weeks before school got out. We found her and her clutch but didn’t have the heart to take it away. 4 th of July comes around, we aren’t in town (a friend is looking after our flock), and she gets scared off her nest not to return. 2 days later we come back and it looks like 5 “might” be viable (they still have clear defined blood vessels)? Crazy enough our runner duck (Shower) has formed her own clutch inside their pen (no clue when) and is hissing spitting broody (we’ve been gone for about a week and a half). I label Voids and Shower’s (thinking I’ll probably end up tossing Void’s) to keep track and to make sure no new ones make their way in. 8+ days later I’m ready to chuck them all and as I take them to toss Shower throws a fit. I candle and we now have 3 ducklings and a bunch of eggs. I have a top hatch incubator BUT, to add to the duck drama Fenna, our Rouen, decided to co-nest (co-brood?) with Shower… I looked under today and 2 ducklings were under Shower and 1 was under Fenna and they have split the remaining eggs between them. And now the original broody duck is starting to cover the eggs again….
Soo my question is, can the ladies work this out on their own? Will one of them take over the rearing and the other the brooding? (On our trip we spent the night next to a family of wild geese with many adults and goslings of various ages. ???) There’s is food and water for the ducklings right next to the nests….
