Stressed Out Overprotective Duck?

[elliehasducks]

Hi, I'm new to this forum as well as a relatively new duck owner. we have 3 dwarf ducks and 4 runner ducks, all of them about a year and a half old. Basically I need some advice on an overprotective duck!

SO to explain the situation, none of the ducks have successfully hatched their own eggs yet (some do build nests and the eggs get stolen by foxes or martens, others are not interested in building a nest at all and lay their eggs wherever). which is why my mom got an incubator and right now we have 5 little adorable ducklings, the oldest is about 2 weeks old, the youngest a week. during the day we put them outside in a fenced in area like this outside on the lawn.

The problem is, one of the adult ducks, Julia, whose nest that she had sat on for two weeks got recently stolen by a fox, has developed major motherly feelings for the duckling within the 3 days they've been outside and therefore in her reach. She literally spends her whole day just sitting by the fence to watch over the ducklings and when anyone gets too close she puffs up her feathers, stands as straight as a stick and quacks at the top of her lungs. which is a problem bc I need to take care of the ducklings and obviously can't avoid that. so for the past three days I've had to feed the ducklings, give them water etc. while Julia completely lost her sh*t.

And I'm worried, bc if she's constantly that riled up and stressed that can't be good for her, right? I don't want to upset her more than necessary. but our backyard is basically a rectangle with few trees or bushes so we can't hide the ducklings from her sight unless we put them back inside, which isn't an ideal option. plus I'm trying to handle the ducklings a lot to try and make them as docile as possible, but if there's constantly an adult duck nearby trying to get me away from them, I'm afraid the little ones will figure out over time that human means danger. is that possible?

So do you guys know of any ways to either help Julia peacefully fulfill her motherly role or a way to get her to lose interest? Or am I just too worried?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated so thanks in advance

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hi, I'm new to this forum as well as a relatively new duck owner. we have 3 dwarf ducks and 4 runner ducks, all of them about a year and a half old. Basically I need some advice on an overprotective duck!

SO to explain the situation, none of the ducks have successfully hatched their own eggs yet (some do build nests and the eggs get stolen by foxes or martens, others are not interested in building a nest at all and lay their eggs wherever). which is why my mom got an incubator and right now we have 5 little adorable ducklings, the oldest is about 2 weeks old, the youngest a week. during the day we put them outside in a fenced in area like this outside on the lawn.

The problem is, one of the adult ducks, Julia, whose nest that she had sat on for two weeks got recently stolen by a fox, has developed major motherly feelings for the duckling within the 3 days they've been outside and therefore in her reach. She literally spends her whole day just sitting by the fence to watch over the ducklings and when anyone gets too close she puffs up her feathers, stands as straight as a stick and quacks at the top of her lungs. which is a problem bc I need to take care of the ducklings and obviously can't avoid that. so for the past three days I've had to feed the ducklings, give them water etc. while Julia completely lost her sh*t.

And I'm worried, bc if she's constantly that riled up and stressed that can't be good for her, right? I don't want to upset her more than necessary. but our backyard is basically a rectangle with few trees or bushes so we can't hide the ducklings from her sight unless we put them back inside, which isn't an ideal option. plus I'm trying to handle the ducklings a lot to try and make them as docile as possible, but if there's constantly an adult duck nearby trying to get me away from them, I'm afraid the little ones will figure out over time that human means danger. is that possible?

So do you guys know of any ways to either help Julia peacefully fulfill her motherly role or a way to get her to lose interest? Or am I just too worried?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated so thanks in advance

Why can't Julia be in with the ducklings, sounds like she really wants to mother them. I'd give it a try. only other option would be to lock Julia up away from them and doesn't sound like you can do that. As for your fox and marten problem sounds like you need some good fencing maybe hot wired to keep the preds at bay or your ducklings and ducks may end up as the same fate as the eggs have.

Welcome to BYC

 

[elliehasducks]

Why can't Julia be in with the ducklings, sounds like she really wants to mother them. I'd give it a try. only other option would be to lock Julia up away from them and doesn't sound like you can do that. As for your fox and marten problem sounds like you need some good fencing maybe hot wired to keep the preds at bay or your ducklings and ducks may end up as the same fate as the eggs have.

Welcome to BYC

We lock them into their little duck house at night anyway (both adults and ducklings, but seperatley) but if one of them builds a nest outside and won't leave it...

I guess I'll try putting Julia with the ducklings but that's not ideal either bc the area is quite small and Julia is used to the whole big garden and before that she spent a year living in the wild with a flock of wild ducks.

I'll try tomorrow if I can catch her to reunite her with her adopted children and then update

 

[Miss Lydia]

We lock them into their little duck house at night anyway (both adults and ducklings, but seperatley) but if one of them builds a nest outside and won't leave it...

I guess I'll try putting Julia with the ducklings but that's not ideal either bc the area is quite small and Julia is used to the whole big garden and before that she spent a year living in the wild with a flock of wild ducks.

I'll try tomorrow if I can catch her to reunite her with her adopted children and then update

If she wants to adopt the ducklings she may not care how small the area is at first. try just opening the door if it has one she may go in on her own.

Most on her discourage nest building outside of any secure building because of predators our ducks are really " sitting ducks" if left to brood outside.

Look forward to an update.