Suddenly Vocal Female Duck

[Marubobaru]

Hello everyone!

I’ve been raising my 3 Rouens for just over a year now and one of my 2 girls has been acting strange for the past week or so. She’s super aggressive and loud to anyone who goes in the garden and I’m not sure if it’s a seasonal thing or if she’s just being broody. We take out her eggs every morning and I don’t think she has another nest in the yard; I also have never seen her actually sit on any of her eggs which is why I’m surprised she’s suddenly acting so territorial. Whenever I go out to check on them, she’s puffed up and her mouth is open and she quacks really loud. Should I be concerned? And is there anything I can do to make her feel better or that would help calm her down?

 

[sourland]

It sounds like broody behavior.

 

[ibarbidahl]

Broody!

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Hello everyone!

I’ve been raising my 3 Rouens for just over a year now and one of my 2 girls has been acting strange for the past week or so. She’s super aggressive and loud to anyone who goes in the garden and I’m not sure if it’s a seasonal thing or if she’s just being broody. We take out her eggs every morning and I don’t think she has another nest in the yard; I also have never seen her actually sit on any of her eggs which is why I’m surprised she’s suddenly acting so territorial. Whenever I go out to check on them, she’s puffed up and her mouth is open and she quacks really loud. Should I be concerned? And is there anything I can do to make her feel better or that would help calm her down?

I agree broody. Broody hens won't start sitting on a nest until they have a "clutch" of eggs normally that's around 14-15, but the exact number depends on the duck. There isn't much you can do to calm her down unless you want to order some fertilized eggs and slip them to her for hatching. If not just keep taking the eggs and "destroying" the nests. I just take a small rake and rake their nests over a swipe or two until it's flattened out. Sometimes taking the eggs and destroying the nests snaps them out of it fairly quickly and other times you just have to let them run their broody course. I had one broody hen this year who I was taking the eggs daily from her best and raking it over. Right across from her pen I had 2 week old ducklings that I had just moved from my stock tank brooder into another pen so they could have more space. Anyways, I walk out one day and don't see her pacing, puffing and hissing in the pen so I went outside to see if she had finally decided to go free range with the rest of the flock again. I didn't see her anywhere and started to panic so I was went back in the barn to do another search for her...here she flew into the pen with the 2 week old ducklings and had claimed them the ducklings are now around 2.5 months and she still follows them around 24/7.

 

[Marubobaru]

I thought that might be the case. Just to clarify, hens can act broody even before they have a full clutch? It’s been going on for a few weeks now and I’m hoping it’ll end soon (unless she has another nest I don’t know of hahaha). I’ll try to clean out the whole coop and see if that makes any difference

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I thought that might be the case. Just to clarify, hens can act broody even before they have a full clutch? It’s been going on for a few weeks now and I’m hoping it’ll end soon (unless she has another nest I don’t know of hahaha). I’ll try to clean out the whole coop and see if that makes any difference

Yes they will act broody before they officially nest.

 

[Anime2lover]

I agree broody. Broody hens won't start sitting on a nest until they have a "clutch" of eggs normally that's around 14-15, but the exact number depends on the duck. There isn't much you can do to calm her down unless you want to order some fertilized eggs and slip them to her for hatching. If not just keep taking the eggs and "destroying" the nests. I just take a small rake and rake their nests over a swipe or two until it's flattened out. Sometimes taking the eggs and destroying the nests snaps them out of it fairly quickly and other times you just have to let them run their broody course. I had one broody hen this year who I was taking the eggs daily from her best and raking it over. Right across from her pen I had 2 week old ducklings that I had just moved from my stock tank brooder into another pen so they could have more space. Anyways, I walk out one day and don't see her pacing, puffing and hissing in the pen so I went outside to see if she had finally decided to go free range with the rest of the flock again. I didn't see her anywhere and started to panic so I was went back in the barn to do another search for her...here she flew into the pen with the 2 week old ducklings and had claimed them the ducklings are now around 2.5 months and she still follows them around 24/7.

I had a mom that was trying to hatch some eggs, adopt week old ducklings as their mom when her eggs didn't hatch. It was great since we no longer had to worry about integrating them with the flock safely. Their adopted mom protected them. She would act all puffy, quack really loud and tear up my hand if I got to close to them. She even moved her nest of eggs to where she could see them before I finally let her have them.