I've never seen this before... One of my broody girls has been really lazy about laying on her nest lately. She really only has been doing it when she feels like it. Whenever I go outside she's running around the pen with the other ducks. I checked on all of her eggs a couple days ago by candling them and they were all alive and just about ready to pip. So I checked on them again yesterday and one was pipped and I could feel one moving, but it looked like she hadn't sat on the nest all day. I went out this morning and one baby was hatched, but she wasn't on the nest... One of my other hens has one duckling that's about 1 week old. That baby was sitting in the nest next to the new duckling! It's like the older baby adopted the new baby as its sibling. The other two eggs have small zips started. Should I just leave the new baby and the eggs alone?
Wow, that is strange. Can't really help you with this but I'm sure someone will chime in soon. Your broody doesn't sound all that broody if she is off her nest all the time. Is is really warm & humid there that they can be hatching out without momma? I'd worry that they have no one watching out for them to protect & show them how to get along. What about the week old duckling.... is it's momma watching out for it? Could be she would adopt the new peepers. Yesh!!!! Let us know what you decide to do & how is turns out.
Hope your other duck adopts the new babies. Have a friend that actually hatched a duck egg wrapped in a towel on top of a water heater once, she brought it in the house set it on the water heater and forgot it. Boy was she surprised to find a duckling on her water heater a few days later. So ya if its warm there they could be hatching unassisted. Once hatched if she doen't come to tend them, give them to the other duck if she'll take them.. Watch carefully. If the new hatch is hanging with the 1 week old, then looks like it will be OK. I had a duck that would not let other ducklings eat or drink and I lost all but 1 before I realized what was happening. So just watch to see what happens, before you go hand raising them in the house.
The mamma of the week old duckling keeps a very close eye on it. This is the first duckling I've let her have for so long and she's loving it. She might just accept the new babies... The new ducklings might have a better chance once they're dry and can follow her around. I took the hatched duckling into the garage and put it in my brooder because it was shivering even though it's SUPER hot outside. It has to be at least 85 or higher out there with insane humidity. I think that's why the eggs are hatching... I'm worried about the other eggs because I don't know if leaving them by themselves is a good idea... I'll keep checking on them throughout the day, but if the membranes start looking dry what should I do? I have an incubator but it takes 24 hours for it to fully heat up...
Sadly one of the unhatched ducklings has died... I took the other duckling inside and it eventually hatched itself. There's a lot of blood though and it's trying to detach itself from the egg but it's very attached... I put it in the brooder so hopefully it'll pull through.
