My Cayuga is Brooding! Need advice On What To Do (pictures included!).

[Ibicella]

Was on vacation for a week and just came home to a wonderful surprise...my Cayuga duck Nerissa has gone broody and made a nest on the side of our house with 8 little eggs!

We're thrilled. She's a year old and we've been waiting, waiting, waiting for somebody to go broody and try their hand at motherhood so we can have ducklings. My drake Paris is the father and is taking good care of her. He keeps trying to shoo me away from his mate. Ha ha! He's such a good boy.

This is the first time I've ever had a broodie of my own though, and I have never dealt with a broody duck before, only chickens. What do I need to do for my girl? Any tips, tricks, advice? I'm an excited duck-grannie-to-be!


The dead branches of an old hydrangea we tossed back there is where she decided to build her nest.




That black smudge is Neri. She turns herself into a duckie puffball when I come near and scolds me.



She's got 8 little eggs. <3

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Was on vacation for a week and just came home to a wonderful surprise...my Cayuga duck Nerissa has gone broody and made a nest on the side of our house with 8 little eggs!

We're thrilled. She's a year old and we've been waiting, waiting, waiting for somebody to go broody and try their hand at motherhood so we can have ducklings. My drake Paris is the father and is taking good care of her. He keeps trying to shoo me away from his mate. Ha ha! He's such a good boy.

This is the first time I've ever had a broodie of my own though, and I have never dealt with a broody duck before, only chickens. What do I need to do for my girl? Any tips, tricks, advice? I'm an excited duck-grannie-to-be!


The dead branches of an old hydrangea we tossed back there is where she decided to build her nest.




That black smudge is Neri. She turns herself into a duckie puffball when I come near and scolds me.



She's got 8 little eggs. <3

She really just needs the same thing any other duck needs, other than being treated like a friendly pet. (Not sure if you typically mess with her a lot anyway or if she's mostly a yard duck.) Broody ducks do not like to be bothered and will sometimes abandon the nest if they're repeatedly disrupted. You've already seen the thing where they puff up to twice their normal size to scare you away. I've been "screamed at," scratched, nipped, bitten, and flown at doing things around our broody ducks that had to be done. They can get very defensive even around their caretakers.

I don't see any sort of enclosure or screening in your pics. Are your ducks normally just out in the open? All ducks need a safe, secured place they can go, especially to be locked in at night. She's going to be very attractive to predators if she's not protected. Think of the phrase "sitting duck" that refers to things that are helpless and vulnerable.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Oh, and many congratulations! You're going to have tons of fun. I just tend to get a little panicky for the other people and their ducks when I see pics of duck surroundings and don't see any enclosures for them.

Hoping for updates on how things are going, and on the hatch!

 

[Ibicella]

She really just needs the same thing any other duck needs, other than being treated like a friendly pet. (Not sure if you typically mess with her a lot anyway or if she's mostly a yard duck.) Broody ducks do not like to be bothered and will sometimes abandon the nest if they're repeatedly disrupted. You've already seen the thing where they puff up to twice their normal size to scare you away. I've been "screamed at," scratched, nipped, bitten, and flown at doing things around our broody ducks that had to be done. They can get very defensive even around their caretakers.

I don't see any sort of enclosure or screening in your pics. Are your ducks normally just out in the open? All ducks need a safe, secured place they can go, especially to be locked in at night. She's going to be very attractive to predators if she's not protected. Think of the phrase "sitting duck" that refers to things that are helpless and vulnerable.

I do have a coop that they share with three chickens (everyone gets along as they grew up together) that isn't in the shot. Everybody freeranges around the backyard during the day and gets locked in the coop for the night at dusk. Normally my ducks lay their eggs wherever they feel like on the floor of the coop, but Neri decided she didn't want her nest there and built this outside. My neighbor was caring for the birds while we were on vacation, but did the right thing and left Neri where she was until I returned.

I need to move the nest, but not sure what to do or how to do it.

 

[Ibicella]

Bump

Come on guys, I need your sacred duckie knowledge! Resources, links, suggestions, anything! All I'm finding about brooding eggs is how to do them in an incubator and not about helping give a mother duck what she needs.

 

[the poppster]

There's a good chance that she will abandon the nest if you move it...so your best bet, if you want her to hatch the eggs is to make her pen as secure as possible...or arrange a temporary pen in the corner or along the wall where she is..make it big enough for her to move around....with food and water...plan it so you can just swoop in and set it in place....so you don't disturb her to much. If she abandons the nest you will have to incubate the eggs....

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Bump

Come on guys, I need your sacred duckie knowledge! Resources, links, suggestions, anything! All I'm finding about brooding eggs is how to do them in an incubator and not about helping give a mother duck what she needs.

They really do just need the things I've told you as far as I can think. Maybe others can think of more, but all I can say is think of it as a woman who's pregant. She doesn't need anything she didn't already need, other than maybe extra vitamins, which doesn't apply to broody ducks, and a leather strap to bite on when the hubby is getting on her nerves. She still needs food, water, exercise, and a safe shelter, and she needed that all before she was pregnant. You're kind of like the ob, except you don't poke around at anything. You just make sure things are going okay.

The safe shelter part is concerning me for yours. It's not easy to move a duck's nest, and they'll sometimes abandon the nest if you move it, especially if they didn't like to lay in their sheltered place and specifically chose to make their own place elsewhere. What would I do if she were mine? You're going to think I'm nuts (but you'll find other reasons for that if you hang around), but I'd put up some kind of shelter around her before I'd try to move the nest, and I'd do it as quietly as I could. (When I say "I" in this case, I mean I'd tell my hubby he needs to figure something out.)

Another important thing is that they need to get off the nest a couple of times per day to eat, drink, and bathe. Many, maybe most, do that on their own, but not all. I had one BO that would not go unless I pushed her off the nest, out of the coop, out of the pen, and locked the door behind her. I've read there are some ducks and chickens that get so weird when they're broody that they'll set on the nest and starve rather than get up and do their thing, and I truly believe she was one of them.

 

[the poppster]

And if you incubate the eggs, it might take a while for the adult ducks to accept the ducklings....they can be downright nasty to the little ones when there's no Mama ... I tried to introduce a adolescent duck to the flock once....and the adults all but murdered it...they beat the ever living stuffing out of my Scooter duck....the next attempt to integrate him....didn't go any better...To this day I regret putting him in there...I'd never repeat it...Poor baby...so if at all possible leave the eggs with mom...

 

[JadeComputerGal]

And if you incubate the eggs, it might take a while for the adult ducks to accept the ducklings....they can be downright nasty to the little ones when there's no Mama ... I tried to introduce a adolescent duck to the flock once....and the adults all but murdered it...they beat the ever living stuffing out of my Scooter duck....the next attempt to integrate him....didn't go any better...To this day I regret putting him in there...I'd never repeat it...Poor baby...so if at all possible leave the eggs with mom...

Right. That's not something that's easily done because the mother doesn't know that the ducklings are hers. Ducks have no idea about eggs you took from them. They didn't get to do the normal communication they do before the ducklings are hatched, so it's really the same thing as buying a duckling at a feed store an plopping it down in the middle of your existing flock. The duckling is not going to fare well even if the egg it came from was laid by one of those ducks.

 

[the poppster]

I second that comment!!! Thank you Jade! If I had it all to do over again...I would have kept my Scooter duck in the house as a pet...mess and all...(I'm not house proud) it was just such a small house..two dogs and a husband in a 800 square foot house....snug...but I would have never put him in with the others if I had known what was going to happen....Chickens aren't as mean as ducks..not by a long shot!!!