TRICKS to Breeding ducks

[BantyHugger]

I'm Bumping this because its about to be breeding season again and everyone wants little ones. DISCLAIMER: I do not claim to be an expert on this subject. Me and Goat_Walker are the only ones who have experimented with these "tricks" and were successful (he had problems with snakes but she did go broody!) If I am wrong about any of my facts feel free to correct me. This is just trying to help set the "mood" for our planned parents

.
Hope this helps some of you guys! Please post your results with this experiment so we can see if it really works.
Thanks and Good Luck-
Banty

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Yes, clean water is the best for increasing their fertility. I give them clean water 2x a day in shallow rubber bowls (large ones) and they mate right after I give them new water.

 

[streemers]

when i lived in kentucky we would draw a cyrcle around the nest with chalk(if posible. wont work on dirt duh) and they wouldnt go over the chalk. or lots of coffe grounds...they hated it they would move away and it is safe
maybe that will help with the ants maybe not but worth a shot

 

[Dances with Ducks]

I have an idea I would like to run by you eggsperts.

I'm considering setting up a predator proof pen this spring and encouraging my hens to lay there by putting wooden eggs in a big pile of straw.
I'm not interesting in getting my hen's offspring because I don't have the right kind of drakes. I would just keep taking out their eggs and replacing them with more wooden eggs until I could buy the kind of eggs I would want to hatch from someone else. Then I would exchange the good eggs for the wooden eggs.
Do you think this set up would encourage my Welsh Harlequin to get boody and start setting on these wooden eggs?

I guess I would either need to keep the eggs I want to hatch in a cool place until she went broody, or not even order them until then. But if I waited until she went broody she would wind up setting even longer to include the time it takes to procure the eggs.

I may know a lady localy I could get these eggs from in a days time.
I would need to have a backup (homemade) incubator in case the plan failed.
What do you think?

 

[BantyHugger]

Hmmm, that does sound sneaky....
I think the fake eggs would work but some real eggs might need to be present to get her started. My ladies will push everything they know won't hatch out of the nest. They some how (instincts?) know which eggs are fertile and will push them out. If your girl was to realize all her eggs were fake within the first week she would probably give up straight away. After she starts you can easily swap the original eggs for an equal # of the 'correct' eggs. I think if you switch eggs quickly it shouldn't be a problem. It depends how comfortable your hen is with you moving her to check the nest.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

about the ants.... what about DE? Also there is an ant killing spray that is just mint and mineral oil (smells divine), which shouldn't hurt anyone that ate it, maybe if someone ate a lot they might get diarrhea...

 

[asher]

My ducks want to go broody now, but it's tooo cold. The eggs have been freezing sometimes if we don't collect them soon enough.

However, I set 9 last Sunday and none appear to be fertile. It is a young drake (will be 1yr old in june, girls will be 1 yr old in april), but he has definitely been breeding them. They do have a pool and we empty it and refill it every other day or more (depending on how dirty they get it). Any clue why none would be growing?

I will say I had incubation issues from the start with the temp jumping up and down so my fear is that it killed them. It didn't jump very high (102, I think), but jumped quite low several days. I figured that would retard the growth by several days, but didn't know if it would kill the chance of them growing completely.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Quote:
Thanks for setting me straight on that BantyHugger. I have to confess my motivation in using a lot of wooden eggs was simply to keep eggs I didn't want to hatch for eating. But of course its worth sacrificing a few for this purpose. It also sounds like a daily check/switch under a setting hen could be more disturbing to her than I had considered. I'm a total newbie at this.

 

[ro.netcmarie]

ok here is my situation with my pekin duck. 1. she made a nest under a brush pile that we was going to burn, but the dog got them before i could put any into the bator. 2. she made another nest in the yard in a BIG leaf pile, so i took all 4 eggs and put them into the bator. 3. now she has made a 3rd nest next to the house with 7 eggs in it. i am not going to take the eggs this time, and wiil watch the dog to make sure she doesnt go near it. i did see her(the duck) over at it this mornig, but not sure if she is sitting on them. they are all free range ducks, they have full access to EVERYTHING around my house. so i want her to hatch these eggs, but not sure if she will. it is raining on them, i want to cover it to see if she sets, but i am scared if i do she will leave it and make yet another nest. please help, any input will help alot.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

ro.netcmarie :

ok here is my situation with my pekin duck. 1. she made a nest under a brush pile that we was going to burn, but the dog got them before i could put any into the bator. 2. she made another nest in the yard in a BIG leaf pile, so i took all 4 eggs and put them into the bator. 3. now she has made a 3rd nest next to the house with 7 eggs in it. i am not going to take the eggs this time, and wiil watch the dog to make sure she doesnt go near it. i did see her(the duck) over at it this mornig, but not sure if she is sitting on them. they are all free range ducks, they have full access to EVERYTHING around my house. so i want her to hatch these eggs, but not sure if she will. it is raining on them, i want to cover it to see if she sets, but i am scared if i do she will leave it and make yet another nest. please help, any input will help alot.

I have heard that Pekin ducks rarely go broody as the broodiness has been bred out of them.​