This is the first time I've ever let my ducks hatch the eggs themselves so I'm a bit unsure about a few things. The eggs are due to hatch within the next week and everything is ready for the little babies but the duck that is hatching them isn't the eggs actual mother. She is a blue Swedish who has never been able to lay eggs for some reason. She took over my mixed breed ducks eggs. She raised the drake since he was a duckling so he thinks that she's his mother but the drake seems completely uninterested in the eggs and my blue Swedish. He only seems to care about my mixed duck so I'm not sure if that will effect how he sees the ducklings since he's never been aggressive in any form. Would it be safe to keep him in the large pen that have the three of them now? He always gets stressed out and restless when I separate them so should I still move him? This probably seemed like a long, pointless ramble but I just want to make sure that the ducklings will be safe but I also have limited space to move my drake around. And if I do move him, how long should he be separated from the ducklings?
Not pointless at all - good you are thinking things through. We don't hatch, here, but many people on the forum do, and I have read that it is a good idea to at least be prepared to separate them. Because we don't know ahead of time how the drakes, or even the hatching duck mooma, will act. @Miss Lydia
Or even other females . I'd at least have your mama duck and ducklings in the large pen with temp fencing just to be on the safe side. You can put up some fencing enough room for mama and ducklings to have their own space with food and water. If possible and you can move him I'd at least let him see the mom and her ducklings for at least 2 weeks then try them all together and see how he behaves with them. My drake paid no attention to our ducklings that hatched here 6 weeks ago but they have over a half acre to move around in so moms kept their babies away from everyone. They didn't even want the other females around them or their babies.
