Need some advice on my mama duck ~UPDATE~ Post 8

[bayouchica]

Hey yall,
I worried my Miss Quacks is either a bad mama or is just forgetful???
Three different times today she has left her babies alone,out of her sight,till I got her to come back to them.She hatched out 5 babies less than a week ago.They free range & I'm outside alot during the day.
I'm hoping she's just a little flustered being a new mom.Miss Quacks is less than a year old herself.I would hate to take them from her, they've bonded with her.. what do yall think I should do?
I've never had a duck with babies so I don't know if they normally walk away like that or what???

Thanks,Miriam

 

[Katy]

Ducks don't brood their ducklings like hens do their chicks. That's one reason I've always taken the ducklings away once mama hatches them. Unless she's a muscovy....they're usually good mothers.

 

[Dodgegal79]

It maybe safer to take them from her and brood them yourself.

 

[Flufnstuffs~FluffySilkies]

If you don't have her in a confined smaller area you could end up loosing some or all of them.

If I have baby ducks I keep them and Mom in a 8X10 area.

 

[bayouchica]

gosh,I was afraid of that.. Miss Q is a mallard.
thanks

 

[Dodgegal79]

Yeah best to cage her. I just helped a wild mallard momma and her 5 babies cross the highway today. I seen her and stopped, put my truck in reverse and backed into oncoming traffic behind me to get them to stop. The guy behind me stopped just in time to miss the last little one. I wasn;t worried about my truck, i just didn't want to have to get out and pick up a little dead duck.

 

[Struttn1]

The worst flogging I ever had was at the bill and wings of one of my mallard hens. When I started messing with her babies she would climb/flap right up my back pecking and beating my head with her wings. She never lost any of her babies.

 

[bayouchica]

~UPDATE~
Well I put her in a pen with her babies a few days ago... well she didn't like being in there & started being rough with her babies.I took them away from her

The duckies are adjusting to life without their mom.
Can you believe, the next day that Miss Q starting laying eggs again.

 

[Dodgegal79]

LOL, thats so bad. I guess she just likes laying and sitting, not taking care of what happens after. Bad Mom

 

[RioLindoAz]

Quote:
Your story is very similar to mine! Last year when my BR went broody and hatched out 6 chicks, she hardly payed attention to them. She would go eat and leave the chicks in the nest. The poor chicks were peeping and calling thier mom. So, in return, I took the chicks away from her. She didn't even care. So when I put the BR back with the flock, she automatically mated with the rooster!

And the next day, she laid an egg. un
Meanie hen!

Good thing I finished digesting her about a month after her "abandonment"