Runners

[josh]

Do they go broodie?

 

[poultrycrazy]

I dont think they are known for it but i have heard of them going broody alot. Some not making it through the whole 28 days and some do

 

[TLWR]

Yes, they do. But it is easy for me to make her forget what she was doing once she hops off her eggs to get something to eat.

 

[Amiga]

Mine go semi-broody. I have three who are most prone to do that. They'll sit on the nest until the rest of the flock leaves the pen - their flock instinct seems stronger than the broodiness. Once off the nest, Sechs and Funf will make distress calls, which I take to mean they are concerned about their eggs, but they run back and forth between flock and nest for a while. If I wanted to hatch eggs, I would either invest in an incubator, ask someone else to incubate them for me, or get a broody duck (if that is even possible).

 

[gofasterstripe]

Quote:

ahhhh poor Blue, Ive just noticed shes not sitting on her eggs, shes got 1 on either side of her. Oh man, shes just so cute

 

[TLWR]

Quote:

ahhhh poor Blue, Ive just noticed shes not sitting on her eggs, shes got 1 on either side of her. Oh man, shes just so cute

She quickly fixed that. All 3 were out. She rolled them back under her and then yelled at me for bothering her by standing 10 feet away with a camera lol

The other day she was sitting on 2 eggs. Neither were hers! She hasn't laid in a few days or if she has, I have no clue where she's laying them. I'm home today, so will keep an eye on her to see where she might be leaving eggs.

 

[Duck_feeder]

A few of our ducks go broody to varying degrees. Some also play the "aunty" role and try to help out another broody duck instead of sitting on their own eggs.

Victor (fawn & white runner) gets the broodiest most easily and is most likely to get extremely broody. Victor was about 3-4 weeks into ultra broodiness when we got Moxy and Norie (and five other runners that we gave away - with shipping 7 costs the same as 2!). So we stuck some of the ducklings in Victor's nest to see what the response would be. Victor was *TERRIFIED* of them and didn't know what to do. Ming Mei walked into the nest box, saw the ducklings and tried to bite them. Victor saw that and decided the ducklings had to go and nipped at them too. (The ducklings on the other hand didn't want anything to do with ducks as they were imprinted on people). Victor also knows when the other ducks are broody and will take up the role of the security duck. Victor will scream bloody murder if anything nearby moves. That's normally Ollie's job when nobody is broody. So far Victor has only done this when Ming Mei is broody so I don't know if it's a bonding thing or a flock thing.

Ming Mei (chocolate runner) doesn't get broody as easily but when she does, she gets angry whenever we take her away from her nest for too long. Ming Mei was broody as of a couple days ago and might still be (I've been taking away their eggs daily so it's hard to tell)

Vinny (black runner) isn't the brightest of ducks and will occasionally build nests and sit in them sporadically. Vinny hasn't quite figured out that you're supposed to sit ON the eggs, not have them form a ring around you... Vinny was also broody as of a couple days ago.

Moxy (blue runner) and Ollie (blue runner) will show signs broodiness. Once I catch them on their nests they rarely ever sit on them again. Moxy has been yelling their alarm quack the past few days so she might be inclined to being a security duck when others are broody.

Norie on the other hand has been known to break open eggs to eat them and toss the shells into their water...