Old fashioned Broody Thread for Ducks

[Ren2014]

Update, she attacked the third hatchling yesterday evening and made the poor thing bleed, so last night i cobbled together an incubator and stole her remaining eggs. Two more hatched over night, so i feel justified. All ducklings are doing fine. And i am learning how to incubate ....

So sorry to hear this. I wouldn't let her sit on anymore eggs ever. Congratulations on the 2 and

for the rest.

for stepping in.

 

[susan251]

So sorry to hear this.  I wouldn't let her sit on anymore eggs ever.  Congratulations on the 2 and  for the rest.   for stepping in.

Thanks, one more hatched this morning.

So you dont think this is a first time mother issue? Next year she migh be the same? That would be a pity.

Now the question is, how to i stop her sitting? She is taking newly laid eggs this morning to sit on.

 

[Ren2014]

Thanks, one more hatched this morning.

So you dont think this is a first time mother issue? Next year she migh be the same? That would be a pity.

Now the question is, how to i stop her sitting? She is taking newly laid eggs this morning to sit on.

It's difficult to say. I'm leaning against the first time mother issue but I'm no expert. You could certainly let her try again but be right there on top of her when they start to hatch. She has some still hatching and she's laying more??

 

[Miss Lydia]

It's difficult to say. I'm leaning against the first time mother issue but I'm no expert. You could certainly let her try again but be right there on top of her when they start to hatch. She has some still hatching and she's laying more??

Take all eggs away don't let her have any. put new bedding in where she had her nest remove or destroy the nest before you put in the bedding and hope for the best. she'll either give up or stay but don't let her have any eggs to sit. When I have girls wanting to brood I have to be 2 steps ahead of them and check often for eggs and make sure I get them all.

First time moms can be excellent broody's but when hatching starts freak out and can kill and attacked their own. Such a shame but I had it happen here, Next year though this broody was an excellent mama. But I was ready to take all ducklings that hatched but thankfully I didn't have to.

Glad you were able to save the little's.

 

[tmorgan46]

Take all eggs away don't let her have any. put new bedding in where she had her nest remove or destroy the nest before you put in the bedding and hope for the best. she'll either give up or stay but don't let her have any eggs to sit. When I have girls wanting to brood I have to be 2 steps ahead of them and check often for eggs and make sure I get them all.

First time moms can be excellent broody's but when hatching starts freak out and can kill and attacked their own. Such a shame but I had it happen here, Next year though this broody was an excellent mama. But I was ready to take all ducklings that hatched but thankfully I didn't have to.

Glad you were able to save the little's.

X2 on Miss Lydia's advice. We've had the full spectrum with ours. We've had 1st year momma's hatch and then abandon the ducklings, so we scooped them up and put them in our in-door brooder. We've had another hatch and do very well, between her and one other, they are excellent mommas and we couldn't be happier. We had a third first year mom, take good care of her ducklings but then fell prey to something and left 4 little ones orphaned; we stepped in an are taking care of them now. It's funny to see and we're lousy at the prediction aspect of it too. The ducks we think will do great, haven't gone broody yet. The few that have, we've been completely wrong on who would do good and who needs some remedial training. Overall, we've had a great year and have sold 30 ducklings (or so) with 15 or so to go. And two new mommas just starting to sit. One of the greatest joys I face, each and every day. Getting rid of the nest and doing a full change of the bedding will really help. So much so, that the new momma we did that for never went back to that particular area where her nest was. She's back to her normal self hanging with all the other "kids".

 

[Quackalackin]

Hey everyone, I had a couple broody curiosity questions. I have Anconas, who I know are not well known for their mama abilities, but they seem to have a slight interest in brooding. I still collect eggs every day though, but if they want to try sitting on their eggs for a few hours until they get bored I let them. Then I collect, and one of the four of them will usually try hanging around the barn with the eggs the next morning. This morning, a Thyme stayed on the eggs for about an hour until she joined the flock. Then I couple hours later Parsley and Rosemary went back to the barn together to lay on another nest. Parsley left after awhile, but Rosemary is still there.

So my questions are...
How long can a clutch of eggs sit, undeveloped, after being hatched until a duck decides to stay sitting on them?
Once broody, how long can the eggs be left alone while the mother duck wonders away for food/water etc?
I have 7 or 8 laying hens (it's hard to tell exactly who is laying sometimes) of Ancona, khaki, and Cayugas who seem to be sharing one or two nesting spots. Will my Ancona be okay with laying on another ducks eggs? What about raising any potential ducklings?
In wild ducks, do they lay eggs every day as well? Do wild ducks share nests? Or does it take a duck multiple days to produce a clutch of eggs to sit on? Wrapping back up to my first question, how long can a hatched egg sit before the hen decides to brood?

Getting ducklings isn't my goal of having ducks, but if one happened to decide to go broody I'd be interested in seeing how it turned out. My duck setup now isn't great for broody hens as they sleep/lay in my barn but generally hang out in a yard during the day. Once I have a permanent setup with coop/run/yard attached I think they'd be more persistent with staying with their eggs

Thanks!

 

[addarr]

(For the life of my I cannot figure out how to start a new post)
I have only had one broody hen in the past with no male in the flock so I always went out with my marker and poked them with dots one two and three and would rotate out eggs as I would take them.

But I'm hoping for some help. I have two new girls that went broody a khaki Campbell and my Cyuga female. I've only got one male my khaki Campbell. Anyhow, my Cyuga has been sitting for about 4 weeks and I'm a little excited for the new babe's to get here. She's got only 3 eggs. I snuck one away and candled it. It's got to be around 22 days ish.I really thought it had been over a month. The egg was completely dark except for the little air pocket. I was in a hurry because i didnt want her to catch me messing with her nest, but didn't feel or see any movement whole holding it. So I'm thinking they should hatch in about 5 days or less I'm thinking.
My Khaki Campbell female has 8 eggs that I can count but her nest is pretty dang deep so there could be more.I guess she took a que from her female buddy and was like ya let's make babies!
I've heard of 1st time mom's killing babies and drakes also killing sometimes as well. Does he need to be pulled out of the flock for now? What can I do to keep them from being killed?

 

[Miss Lydia]

(For the life of my I cannot figure out how to start a new post)
I have only had one broody hen in the past with no male in the flock so I always went out with my marker and poked them with dots one two and three and would rotate out eggs as I would take them.

But I'm hoping for some help. I have two new girls that went broody a khaki Campbell and my Cyuga female. I've only got one male my khaki Campbell. Anyhow, my Cyuga has been sitting for about 4 weeks and I'm a little excited for the new babe's to get here. She's got only 3 eggs. I snuck one away and candled it. It's got to be around 22 days ish.I really thought it had been over a month. The egg was completely dark except for the little air pocket. I was in a hurry because i didnt want her to catch me messing with her nest, but didn't feel or see any movement whole holding it. So I'm thinking they should hatch in about 5 days or less I'm thinking.
My Khaki Campbell female has 8 eggs that I can count but her nest is pretty dang deep so there could be more.I guess she took a que from her female buddy and was like ya let's make babies!
I've heard of 1st time mom's killing babies and drakes also killing sometimes as well. Does he need to be pulled out of the flock for now? What can I do to keep them from being killed?

I can only speak with the Muscovy's i have, i had 3 females go broody they had to be kept separate from each other, no one could be close to their nest and when hatching began on my land those mamas were so protective but did not want the others ducklings anywhere near her. after a few weeks at first one would want all the ducklings and the ducklings would oblidge by following the mama with the most ducklings then i would have to go and get mamas babies back ugh This went on for about 2 weeks till finally one mama wouldn't even bring her ducklings outside she was so worried they would leave.My drake stayed in the same area but was locked up at night so he wouldn't mess with mamas and ducklings. During the daylight hrs he pretty much stayed away from them all They all have a half acre to forage in so no one was too
close. Some drakes will kill ducklings so I kept a close eye on him but it all went good,. I had to keep my 2 geese away from them all though. I'd wait till right before hatching starts then if you want put dad in separate quarters but where he can still see everyone. Keep an eye on both mamas too some ducks can kill or injure ducklings also.
at around 3 weeks 2 of the mamas decided to give up being mamas and the 1 mama took over all 11 ducklings and finished raising them till they were 5 weeks old.
Welcome to BYC @addarr

 

[addarr]

I can only speak with the Muscovy's i have, i had 3 females go broody they had to be kept separate from each other, no one could be close to their nest and when hatching began on my land those mamas were so protective but did not want the others ducklings anywhere near her. after a few weeks at first one would want all the ducklings and the ducklings would oblidge by following the mama with the most ducklings then i would have to go and get mamas babies back ugh This went on for about 2 weeks till finally one mama wouldn't even bring her ducklings outside she was so worried they would leave.My drake stayed in the same area but was locked up at night so he wouldn't mess with mamas and ducklings. During the daylight hrs he pretty much stayed away from them all  They all have a half acre to forage in so no one was too
close. Some drakes will kill ducklings so I kept a close eye on him but it all went good,. I had to keep my 2 geese away from them all though. I'd wait till  right before hatching starts then if you want put dad in separate quarters but where he can still see everyone. Keep an eye on both mamas too some ducks can kill or injure ducklings also.
at around 3 weeks 2 of the mamas decided to give up being mamas and the 1 mama took over all 11 ducklings and finished raising them till they were 5 weeks old.
Welcome to BYC @addarr
 

Thanks for the advice. I've got one girl Daffy behind the house and the other in one house, there is an empty one that no one is using (go figure) Do you think the mamma's should be separated from each other for a few days once hatching begins?
Or since Buttercup is a few weeks behind and dutifully sitting that she might be too busy to care?

 

[susan251]

Hello again. So, of the 13 eggs i took from my duck, 10 were viable, and they all hatched. Yay! It ended up being a staggered hatch, over 9 days (Silly ducks laying in someone else's nest). However, I had to help the last three ducklings out, and I think they were the wrong position to hatch. Do you think it might have been because the humidity fluctuated during incubation?