Weird Broody Duck Stance and other strange behaviors...

[HnkyDnkyZZFarm]

Her Ladyship Mud Duck has been acting WEIRD. At first I thought she was poisoned, then I realized she was sitting a nest. AMAZING! Will wonders never cease. I didn't think she'd sit. Now she's acting like an utter weirdo though, puffing up at me and barking with her beak wide open whenever I come out into the yard.

Her sister has decided to be broody with her, but is much less aggressive, so they're actually sitting the nest together. Not sure if they'll raise the ducklings co-op style or exactly how that will go, IF they hatch anything, or stay on the nest long enough. They both lay in the same nest, so it will be interesting to see how they work out the details of all that. They share a drake already, and it seems to work out for everyone.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Her Ladyship Mud Duck has been acting WEIRD. At first I thought she was poisoned, then I realized she was sitting a nest. AMAZING! Will wonders never cease. I didn't think she'd sit. Now she's acting like an utter weirdo though, puffing up at me and barking with her beak wide open whenever I come out into the yard.

Her sister has decided to be broody with her, but is much less aggressive, so they're actually sitting the nest together. Not sure if they'll raise the ducklings co-op style or exactly how that will go, IF they hatch anything, or stay on the nest long enough. They both lay in the same nest, so it will be interesting to see how they work out the details of all that. They share a drake already, and it seems to work out for everyone.

Sounds just like what a broody does. Keep us updated about Hatch.

 

[beccaWA]

Nice! What kind of ducks? I had a broody Khaki who successfully hatched 6 under a brush pile. Now I have a broody Cayuga who appears to like it under the giant juniper bush!

Keep us posted and how about some pics of the moms? Good luck!

 

[HnkyDnkyZZFarm]

Blue Swedish! So it should be pretty exciting to see what colors we get in what real numbers vs. general percentages. There are about 12 eggs give or take, I should count next time I go out. I had gotten more motivated about changing the water in the duck pool for a couple weeks, so there is a decent chance our goofy awkward boy got his act together. For awhile he was the one getting his head held underwater. He had the logistics a bit backwards. Pastor has some super wingtip feathers, and everyone has nice bibs.

 

[beccaWA]

Beautiful!

 

[HnkyDnkyZZFarm]

Sitting...

They seem to have picked the spot and taken over the back quarter of the yard. For now they are fairly tolerant of the chickens, but they have the chickens well trained. For now. It's a wait and see. Hubbs will flip if we have to brood more babies indoors. We just got the last bunch of chickens out of the laundry room. Worse comes to worse I could temporarily fence the back quarter of the chicken yard for them. Their pool is already there.

 

[beccaWA]

My Khaki also brooded outside under a brush pile. When we had to move the pile to chip it, I put the top half of a large dog crate over the nest and put some brush on top. At night I would block the entrance and I did put a concrete block on top of the kennel so that predators would not be able to get them. It took her an afternoon, but she finally went in to sit on the eggs when I first did that. After that, they automatically went in at night. Just an extra precaution.

The ducklings were hatched outside, raised outside, and every one made it. They're now a little over a month old.

That duck is a beauty! I'm sure the babies will be, too.

 

[HnkyDnkyZZFarm]

Candling today... CONFUSING!!!

Okay, so from what I can see, veins are present in all that I've checked, about 50% of the egg is dark, air spaces are small, but not less than 29-30% some I have been able to see movement in, but it's not "ducky" movement so much as guts movement. Came back and checked the thread start date because If I hadn't been watching them sit and knew they stopped laying a few days before the start of the thread, then I would have thought they were much younger. They had been sitting about three days or so when I started the thread, so that would make them about 14 days in, they haven't had much of a weight increase that I can tell, not like chicken eggs. I remember being mind blown at how heavy those got before they hatched.

So I haven't checked all eggs carefully yet, or marked any - they pushed out a bunch a few days ago. Not sure what was up with that. I put em back, they pushed em all out again. I'm going to go out and bother them a bit and candle and mark everything that I see veins or movement in - what should I use to mark? A sharpie sounds like a bad idea on many levels. We started out with 19 eggs, we're down to 13-14 that they are sitting. The original broody seems to be taking a day off, but the other is just chillin, sleeping on the eggs.

One that got pushed out got broken by a crow and I didn't get there in time to see if there was anyone inside. I saw the bum rush out in the yard and by the time I got my shoes on, there was an empty egg, a bit of white and a big ol crow on the back fence.

It seems the ones that have been pushed out, also are candling to show veins, so I'm not sure why they're dumping eggs.

 

[HnkyDnkyZZFarm]

Of 19 it looks like seven may or may not be hatch-able. A few have possible blood rings, and all are taking up less than 50% of the egg at about 14 days into sitting. One that had been pushed out of the nest and across the chicken yard appears to have stopped developing at about day seven upon egg-topsy. Another just never did anything, had no air pocket and was all liquid inside. I figured that one was toast when I noticed nothing was attached to the inside of the egg...

So what's normal? Should there still be about half the egg not dark, with an air pocket at about 14 days of sitting? Most have veins, some are on the "probably no" list because of the rings, but I'm not 100% sure it's not a really big vein, there are maybe two - 4 that have discernible movement.

 

[HnkyDnkyZZFarm]

double post