Oh, the irony! My duck has gone broody.

[Pullet Press]

For several weeks now, one of my female ducks (no idea on the breed), Pepper, has been broody. At first, I just thought that she was taking longer than usual to lay eggs, but today, when I looked under her to see how many eggs she was on, she held her mouth open, as if to say: "I'll bite you if you touch any one of my babies!", and she tried to make herself look bigger than usual. I don't want to break her out of this, however. Someday I'm planning on getting a drake, so a duck that can hatch her own eggs will be helpful.
The ironic thing, however, is that I just bought 2 cockerels who aren't fully mature. I have some pullets of a more broody-prone breed with them, because I want my hens to hatch their own eggs (I'm lazy), and the duck, who is only a few weeks older than the pullets, is now broody. A duck! The bird who doesn't really go broody (as far as I know). I only wish that I had spotted her broodiness earlier, so I could've snuck a few hatching eggs under her (I could now, I just don't know how long she's been broody).

 

[ronott1]

Too funny!

I have seen posts where a broody duck will take the chicks off to water where the chicken chicks will drown.

You could try using her to hatch them but I would not let her raise them

 

[333113]

Duck eggs take about 28 days of brooding, and chicks take about 21 days, so in theory you have time to get some fertile chick eggs under her to have results.

However, I have to say, some ducks can go broody but then don't carry through to the hatch. I have runners that regularly go broody and quit after a week or so. When I candle the eggs, they are fertile but they haven't been kept warm long enough to still be alive. I have incubated these eggs to hatch, but haven't been able to coordinate with the ducks well enough to surprise them with their own ducklings while they are still on the nest.

Since you are not sure of the duck's breed, maybe this would be a good time to test her broodiness ability by seeing how long she will set on the eggs. You could try adding chicks or ducklings after she has been on the nest at least 28 days to test her mothering instincts, but be prepared to rescue the babies if she fails the mothering test!

If you add chicks, be sure to use a chick-safe waterer that the duck can use, too.