Only One Fertile Duck Egg, Now What?

[boopsqueak]

Our Rouen duck Magnolia went broody just before Easter, so we decided to give her some eggs to hatch. We gave her four duck eggs, two were apparently not fertilized and were discarded, and two were developing quite nicely.
Unfortunately, one of the eggs was destroyed this morning. We are pretty sure it was an accident. After taking a break, Magnolia was trying to return to her nesting box but kept being chased away by another duck, Lucy. Our poor little broody might have crushed the egg while jumping back into the nesting box. She is currently sitting on the remaining egg.
Would it be possible to order a few ducklings and place them under Magnolia when the egg hatches, so that the poor little duckling won't be an "only child", or would any ducklings we order become too imprinted on us and not acknowledge Magnolia as their mother?

 

[DuckNana207]

Our Rouen duck Magnolia went broody just before Easter, so we decided to give her some eggs to hatch. We gave her four duck eggs, two were apparently not fertilized and were discarded, and two were developing quite nicely.
Unfortunately, one of the eggs was destroyed this morning. We are pretty sure it was an accident. After taking a break, Magnolia was trying to return to her nesting box but kept being chased away by another duck, Lucy. Our poor little broody might have crushed the egg while jumping back into the nesting box. She is currently sitting on the remaining egg.
Would it be possible to order a few ducklings and place them under Magnolia when the egg hatches, so that the poor little duckling won't be an "only child", or would any ducklings we order become too imprinted on us and not acknowledge Magnolia as their mother?

I can't give advice on whether ordering other ducklings would be effective or not, but... We did have a batch of ducklings that had only one successful hatch (2 years ago). That duckling did just fine being an "only child" and fits right in as part of the flock now.

 

[boopsqueak]

I can't give advice on whether ordering other ducklings would be effective or not, but... We did have a batch of ducklings that had only one successful hatch (2 years ago). That duckling did just fine being an "only child" and fits right in as part of the flock now.

Thanks for your input! We ended up ordering three more ducklings (two Cayugas, a hen and a drake, and a Buff), they should be coming this week. When the single egg hatches, we'll try to introduce the new babies (monitoring Magnolia very closely, of course). Hopefully, all will go well. I'll post an update when the hatch occurs!