Swedish duck has gone broody, what do I do now?

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

My Swedish duck Silverbells has gone broody! She spent the night on the nest last night, and has been there most of the day!! This has caught me completely off guard. I would love for her to hatch and brood some ducklings. I'm brooding a few that I hatched in the incubator on Thursday. They're so messy, I'd love for her to take over that job

Anyway, what should I do? Should I let her sit for another day before I put the eggs under her that I want her to hatch? To make sure she's serious? Or should I do that tonight?

Also, I'm worried that I will stress her out by taking her off the nest to put the eggs under her; she's not the tamest of ducks. How have your broodies reacted to this invasion of her nest?

Thanks for your responses!!

Oh, here she is:

 

[Ducklove334]

my broodies usually sit tight until I get "the stick", that i use to poke them off the nest LOL, then they go right back once I go away

 

[TK Poultry]

well if you want them to do it naturally then sit tight if not go and get them i had a mating pair of ancona ducks and i could not keep her on her eggs for nothing and i didnt hav a bator at the time so i was really mad and she would go broody a couple a times a month and when i sold her i counted 36 eggs in her house!! the geese were setting at the time too so i didnt go in there very often...geese are mean when they sit

 

[Goat_Walker]

Watch for when she gets off the nest during the day. thats what I do. Then i run and get the eggs and swap them out while she is getting a bite to eat. that way she doesnt truly notice and I dont get hissed at

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

I guess I forgot to mention that she's only got 3 eggs under her (the three that the ducks all laid this morning. I was thinking about putting two or 3 more under her. This evening as I was feeding/changing water/locking the ducks up she jumped up off the nest as soon as the food hit the dish and pigged out. Then she drank some water, pooped a couple of times, stretched her wings and went right back to the nest!!

So, I guess I'll go out there now with the dreaded herding rake and make her hop off the nest so I can stash a few more eggs in the nest. Oh this is so exciting!!

I know I already mentioned this but the absolute best part is I'm gonna have ducklings and I won't even have to brood them!!

 

[TK Poultry]

hey One Acre Wonder Farm do you have alot of swede hatching eggs?? b/c i raise swede ducks and i need some new blood and im having a hard time finding eggs!! if you dont thats kool but i was just wondering!!

 

[goosedragon]

Most of my experience has been with muscovy. when they go broody it is like they are in a trance. you approach slowly and if she doesn't go into a hissy fit you can sneak eggs under her.
If she does go into a hissy fit your best bet is to get out of there and hope to catch her off the nest. They usually give a little notice before they leave by standing up and covering the nest with litter, often they will take a couple of steps away and look back to inspect the nest. Delivering feed will often get them off the nest and then you have to be fast to sneak the extra eggs in or out. they don't count higher than three. Cold eggs may be discarded when she returns to the nest so keep that in mind.

 

[froggie71]

2 of our 4 Swedes were broody, sharing a nest. Across the coop were our 2 runners sharing a nest. The Swedes would quack quite loudly making a lot of rack, get all ruffled up and try to bite when you got anywhere near their nest. The runners would quack, but you could pet them and just shoo them off the nest. Well the Swedes both decided they were done with sitting, so they moved their entire nest and egg over to the runners. And yesterday morning my DS was greeted with a little fuzzy running around the coop. Just so happens to have been one of the Swedes babies! Ended up bringing the baby inside to a brooder though, because the adult ducks kept running all over it.

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

Well this morning I marked 6 eggs that I had in the house and brought them out. She fluffed up and hissed at me, but she hopped off and I was able to take the eggs she had been sitting on. There was an extra in there, I assume one of the other girls deposited it there this morning. I put in the replacement eggs and scooted out of there!

How will I keep the other girls from laying in her nest? Will she allow them to lay in there with her for the entire 4 weeks? That will be a pain if I have to check the nest each day for additional eggs...

Thanks for all your suggestions/ideas!!