The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

If she started building the nest 5 days (5 eggs) or a week ago, and was only satisfied with it today and started sitting for real (she's back on the nest now) -- can these eggs still hatch or are the early ones too old / affected by summer temps / etc ? Last week's heat wave was up to 36 C on Friday which is a lot but since then it's been 25-ish.

I'm thinking in case we decide to let her sit, it would be best to move the nest inside a large dog crate which can then be taken anywhere - safely in the duck house or any place outside over the day even.

As said: Duck's cannot lay five eggs in one day, so they collect the eggs over a longer period of times, leave them hidden in their nest and when they think they have enough eggs, they switch to »fully broody«. Yes, all of the eggs have a good chance to hatch.
And yes, a separate space for her is necessary. Momma ducks like to have a pile of nesting material, they like corners and cave-like structures. Try to think like a duck…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Maybe it would be best to just replace the 5 eggs with 5+ new ones laid in the morning by the other ducks...

You could add another five eggs to the clutch to make sure that up to ten ducklings will hatch…

 

[Supercow]

You could add another five eggs to the clutch to make sure that up to ten ducklings will hatch…

Well... We have 10 ducklings growing up at the moment and I have the building materials for Duck house II: The return of duck house. But if they hatch at the end of July, it will be end of September before we're sure about ladies and gentlemen and by that time nobody at all will be willing to accept any surplus drakes.

So at the moment we're not even sure we want to keep her broody. It's a very interesting and endearing thing and an opportunity to gain more duck experience but as it is, we are both somewhat overwhelmed by the care for 3 generations of ducks, each with their own needs and peculiarities (+ the dogs, the bees and all the veggie and fruit plant life). We need to hire some full time farmhands who would preferrably work for eggs

 

[Miss Lydia]

All of mine that have wanted to brood have been broken I know my limits. I feel sorry for the girls but My responsibility is to make sure I can feed what I have [feed keeps going up just like human food] and they have enough room in their coops so they aren't overcrowded.

 

[Supercow]

All of mine that have wanted to brood have been broken I know my limits. I feel sorry for the girls but My responsibility is to make sure I can feed what I have [feed keeps going up just like human food] and they have enough room in their coops so they aren't overcrowded.

That's my thinking as well, thank you. The heart says it feels wrong to break up the nest but the mind says it would be for everybody's benefit.

 

[Jenbirdee]

All of mine that have wanted to brood have been broken I know my limits. I feel sorry for the girls but My responsibility is to make sure I can feed what I have [feed keeps going up just like human food] and they have enough room in their coops so they aren't overcrowded.

speaking of overcrowding with all my new ducklings i will have only 3 square feet per bird in my duck house if i do nothing. i can either make repairs on my old duck house and let some sleep in there OR I am thinking of making a shelf on one side of the main duck house. i have seen videos with 2nd story shelving inside coops . i think @WannaBeHillBilly has some. I know that a few of my ducks preferred to jump up on things anyway because every time I put a dog crate inside the duck house they are always standing on top of it in the morning. And when I tried to put my chickens in the duck house, I set up a saw horse for the chickens, but some of the ducks were flying up onto it too.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sounds like a plan. Only My Muscovy have gotten off the floor and even roosted with the chickens. If some of your ducks can get onto a shelf to sleep, that would be a good way to add space.

speaking of overcrowding with all my new ducklings i will have only 3 square feet per bird in my duck house if i do nothing. i can either make repairs on my old duck house and let some sleep in there OR I am thinking of making a shelf on one side of the main duck house. i have seen videos with 2nd story shelving inside coops . i think @WannaBeHillBilly has some. I know that a few of my ducks preferred to jump up on things anyway because every time I put a dog crate inside the duck house they are always standing on top of it in the morning. And when I tried to put my chickens in the duck house, I set up a saw horse for the chickens, but some of the ducks were flying up onto it too.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

speaking of overcrowding with all my new ducklings i will have only 3 square feet per bird in my duck house if i do nothing. i can either make repairs on my old duck house and let some sleep in there OR I am thinking of making a shelf on one side of the main duck house. i have seen videos with 2nd story shelving inside coops . i think @WannaBeHillBilly has some. I know that a few of my ducks preferred to jump up on things anyway because every time I put a dog crate inside the duck house they are always standing on top of it in the morning. And when I tried to put my chickens in the duck house, I set up a saw horse for the chickens, but some of the ducks were flying up onto it too.

Introducing a second story in your duck house can help to reduce overcrowding, if your ducks use it. All duck breeds behave different, for example my Runners seem to have some height anxiety, i have never seen any Runner climbing to the top of a pile of compost, woodchips or even hay, whereas the largest breeds that i have, the black and blue Swedish regularly sleep on the "shelf" in the duck house and are eggsperts in using the ramp.
If you want to introduce a shelf, balcony, gallery or whatever you want to call it, make sure that…

• it is wide enough for a duck top walk past another sleeping duck without stepping on her.
• it is made from sturdy, poop-proof material, fiber board will sag after a short time.
• it is supported properly, there will be ducks making their nests under that construction.
• there is a ledge at the outer edge to prevent a decent amount of bedding from falling to the ground floor.
• there is a gentle, non slippery ramp available for the dux. Consider the fact that there will be somebody building her nest right under that ramp in the future.

The second level in the dux-dungeon came to life as a single shelf on top of some nest-boxes, which i used to store the opened straw bale, so that i wouldn't have to carry loose straw from the work-platform into the dux-house. One morning i cought Violeta proudly sitting in a nest she had built within that straw bale…

Another way to really increase the space "in" the duck's house is to add a [[partially] covered,] predator safe run. Many of my drakes prefer not to sleep inside, but spent their nights "outside in the wild". With the exception of really bad weather when they all huddle together in one bedroom…

Adding structure to the interior of the house also "adds" room for the ducks. Not in form of square-footage, but in form of preferred places, like corners or covered hide-outs.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Introducing a second story in your duck house can help to reduce overcrowding, if your ducks use it. All duck breeds behave different, for example my Runners seem to have some height anxiety, i have never seen any Runner climbing to the top of a pile of compost, woodchips or even hay, whereas the largest breeds that i have, the black and blue Swedish regularly sleep on the "shelf" in the duck house and are eggsperts in using the ramp.
If you want to introduce a shelf, balcony, gallery or whatever you want to call it, make sure that…

• it is wide enough for a duck top walk past another sleeping duck without stepping on her.
• it is made from sturdy, poop-proof material, fiber board will sag after a short time.
• it is supported properly, there will be ducks making their nests under that construction.
• there is a ledge at the outer edge to prevent a decent amount of bedding from falling to the ground floor.
• there is a gentle, non slippery ramp available for the dux. Consider the fact that there will be somebody building her nest right under that ramp in the future.

The second level in the dux-dungeon came to life as a single shelf on top of some nest-boxes, which i used to store the opened straw bale, so that i wouldn't have to carry loose straw from the work-platform into the dux-house. One morning i cought Violeta proudly sitting in a nest she had built within that straw bale…

Another way to really increase the space "in" the duck's house is to add a [[partially] covered,] predator safe run. Many of my drakes prefer not to sleep inside, but spent their nights "outside in the wild". With the exception of really bad weather when they all huddle together in one bedroom…

Adding structure to the interior of the house also "adds" room for the ducks. Not in form of square-footage, but in form of preferred places, like corners or covered hide-outs.

thank you so much

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

Found one of my Blue runners dead this morning. In the coop, no sign of damage. Just dead. Of course it was the hen. All the years I've been doing this, this is the first mystery death. I can only think it was a snake bite. On a happier note, I have lovely deer and fawn in the yard. Mom stashed the fawn in the woods in front of my windows and meanders through the yard grazing. Then about this time of day she comes and gets the fawn and they run around the yard for a while before disappearing for the night.