Need Help — duck abandoning eggs after 28 days. The ducklings are about to hatch!

[KaleIAm]

They are adorable!! I'm so happy to hear they did ok during the heat. Mine were not happy with it, but they also did ok. I tried misting them with cool water from a squirt bottle but they walked away all offended everytime. What kind of mister did you get? I feel like I'm going to need to prepare for more hot days this year!

 

[KaleIAm]

It was a really impromptu solution! We just had a garden spray nozzle with multiple spray settings, and we set it to the "mist" setting and then fixed it along the side of the duck run aimed over their pea gravel area. Our adult ducks don't really like to be sprayed either, but if we leave something set up like the mister or sprinkler (especially the sprinkler) they'll wander over eventually and start playing in it!

Thanks! I'll try that! I have a garden hose with a very fine mist setting. If nothing else they'll love the puddles that'll accumulate. :-D

 

[KaleIAm]

Thank you so much for the photos! They are such sweet babies. I love when they are starting to lose their baby fuzz and have that in between look! So cute!

 

[Suzykool]

We decided to let our girls have ducklings this year. Our two year old buff has been sitting on her nest for exactly 28 days as of today. She hasn't been the best mom, but last year was a lot worse. She's been pretty good sitting on her eggs but would sometimes get off for about 30-50 minutes. We would let her out to go have a bath and do her potty business away from the nest. For the most part she's been in the duck run on a nice little nest for the last month. Last night/today it seems she's had enough—she's basically not sitting on the nest anymore (sitting for a few hours at a time then off again). We have an older duck, too old to lay her own eggs, who has been sitting on the nest last night and this morning, but not full time. We've candled most of the eggs and a lot of them have movement, one is pecking/starting to peep. They're SO close to hatching I don't know what to do. We brought 5 of the most promising eggs inside and placed them in our incubator, the nest has another 7 eggs.

We really wanted the girls to raise/take care of/bond to the ducklings and I'm worried that hatching them in the brooder might completely offbalance that whole arrangement and the girls might not accept the ducklings. I'm planning on running the ducklings back out to the nest as they start hatching but I don't know if that's going to work.

Is there anything I can do to encourage the girls to get back on the nest? The mom is right on the finish line. I'm looking at the camera right now and she's off the nest again. I would be fine if the old duck went and sat on the nest again, at this point I'm completely out of ideas. I know the eggs are still alive but I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to take them all out and make the girls think the nest is gone. Any ideas?

Sorry for a long rant, I'm just freaking out! We were so close!

I would leave the nest... If they are pipping they are ready... We had our ducks out side and a few good rain storms did the trick. After the moisture and humidity the eggs hatched. Momma or other hens will jump on. The ones I tried to incubate failed so really try to leave it. Keep me posted