My Cayuga Hen Has Gone Broody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rgn87]

Okay so I came out this morning and found an egg in the ducks house, and thought "oh cool they are laying in the house" Then this afternoon i came out and couldn't find one of my hens, Aldo. Aldo usually does not swim with the other ducks so i thought i was odd, but I looked in the house and saw her moving bits of hay with her mouth. I thought "No Way!!!!!!!".

I started to feed the ducks peas and Aldo came out to get hers. When she left the nest I walked over an peeked in and saw this:

I started laughing and going crazy. I just got these ducks in February and now one of them is sitting on eggs. I am overwhelmed with emotions here.

I also thought I would share a back story about Aldo because she is a special duck. When I first got my ducklings I received 6, but one died within a few days. Aldo began to develop the same symptoms only days later, and I nursed her back to health. Then i put them in the pool, and twice I found Aldo floating weird and I nursed her back to health. She developed a bad limp and I had to quarantine her and another duck(so she wouldn't be lonely) in a dog cage with pine shavings. She still has the limp, and is the second smallest of the five. She never swims with the group, she usually keeps to herself. So when i saw Aldo of all ducks sitting on the nest I was so proud of my little baby I almost cried. I am so happy I took the extra effort to help save Aldo's life, cause she may be bringing new life into this world.

Here is my first mama hen sitting on her babies

Here is my baby girl just chillin

I am glad that this forum exists so i can share my great news with people who know my joy, and love ducks as much as I do.

 

[percyj]

Awwwwww!

 

[Sweetfolly]

Geesh, all the supposedly non-broody ducks are sitting on nests this year! Wifezilla had a Runner hatch babies, my Khaki Campbell is about 2 weeks into her first setting, and now a Cayuga! Must just be something about this summer!

EDIT: And Aldo has such a nicer, cleaner nest than my Juniper made! Juniper keeps pooping on her eggs.

I've been sort of wiping them off every once in awhile, but she's had 2 go rotten now, and I'm sure it's because of all the bacteria she's spewing all over them!

 

[rgn87]

Okay the hen won't sit for more than an hour at a time, every time i come outside she is sitting with the rest of the flock. Is it possible for them to build a nest and then never sit on it?

 

[gryeyes]

My Thelma made a very nice nest in which to lay her eggs. But she never set on them. I take out the egg every day. She replaces it, covers it nicely with bits of leaves and grasses, and off she goes to do ducky things unrelated to brooding.

I kept thinking, okay, she's MADE A NEST - lays eggs in it every day, not all over the yard, so she really wants to lay in THAT spot - why won't she stay with 'em??

 

[usschicago1]

Shes Beautiful

 

[rgn87]

I have seen her sitting on them, it's just not all the time.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Someone had a young Call duck that was doing the same thing a few weeks ago - she'd make a nest and sit on it for a few hours every day, and that was it. None of the eggs ever developed....

It's normal for the duck to get up and leave the eggs once a twice a day for a half-hour or so, but that's about it. I locked my Juniper up with the eggs because she wasn't very serious about staying on them, and they'd already started developing and were far enough along that I didn't want them to die...after a week of being locked up with the nest (she sat on them pretty much constantly while she was locked up - I think it was out of boredom

), I let her out yesterday - yesterday and this morning she came outside for about an hour to eat and take a swim, and then she returned to the nest. Right now, the door's open and she has the option to go outside, but her butt is planted on those eggs.

Anyways, the point of that was - if you really want her to sit, you might try corralling her in a small area with the eggs and see if her broody instinct kicks in a little more. It's not very nice, and I hated to do it to my poor Juniper, but she had 10 or 11 eggs already more than a week along that were depending on her.

EDIT: But, if she's been getting on and off of the eggs that are currently in the nest and they've been warmed and cooled, they may not be viable anymore.