Super Broody Ducks this year!!!

[chickensducks&agoose]

Of our 7 female ducks, 4 have gone broody this year already... Ugh! We had 2 ducks hatch out a combined 7 ducklings, and then they smashed 5 of them. We rescued the other 2, and now 2 more ducks are on 2 more nests, and the one I can see (my blue swede) has 13 eggs in it! Oh dear!!!! Anyone else having broody explosions?

 

[BBrock]

I have muscovy ducks and I had 10 hens on the nest and the lowest number of eggs was 14. Needless to say I had right at 200 ducklings a few months ago. I started picking up the eggs.

 

[learycow]

Yes! 2 of my campbells were on 37 eggs. They killed the first one that hatched, so I put them in the bator. 25 hatched, the rest were duds.
I have another Campbell on 17 eggs, and 2 muscovys, one on 12 eggs, the other on 21. And one of my black Swedish had started a nest.

Must be a good year for babies!!!

 

[Bleenie]

My girls(Muscovy) have been hatching their eggs and starting new nests almost immediately after! I've had a ton of babies this year. I would collect eggs but they keep hiding them so i don't know where they are til they're sitting on them!

 

[Oregon Blues]

I'd be very happy to have my ducks hatch out 12 or 30 ducklings. But then, I eat roast duck, so there are never too many ducklings.

Letting them hatch a clutch gets the breeding season over with. Or, if you don't want ducklings, collect the eggs every day.

I wouldn't expect my ducks to crush their ducklings. Are they first time mothers? Are they in a pen where they are crowded-- or maybe not "crowded" but not enough room to raise peeps?

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

My ducks that smashed their babies are just really dumb, our pekin is more like a hippopekin... and our KC's don't tend to be great moms either. The best moms are the swedes, and I would have collected the eggs if I'd known they were making sneaky-nests... under the duckhouse (6 inches off the ground, and many feet back) and one in the corner of my garden... where I would have looked if I'd had felt like weeding.