- Apr 6, 2011
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We've got a bit of a conundrum. It looks like, unlikely as we thought it seemed, the fertilized duck eggs we tucked beneath our broody hen a few weeks ago are actually going to hatch. Our chickens and ducks generally free-range in the backyard and we don't know how to keep the little ones fed and watered when we don't have much room to segregate.
Our flock: 11 mature hens (mixed ages), 2 mature ducks (male and female), 2 unsexed ducklings (month-old), and 4 apparently-fertilized-quite-far-along duck eggs.
These four duck eggs are sitting beneath a Wyandotte who we brought up from chickhood with the two Cayugas. She sets on them 23.5 hours a day and the drake pokes his nose in to rotate them several times a day, whereas lady duck follows him around, but generally shows no inclination to mother anyone herself. They're about 3-4 weeks in (we didn't really note the time) and look, to our candling, to be almost ready.
The issue is space. Our birds have a free run of the yard and roost in the tree. The area where we would put new chicks (and their presumptive mother) is currently housing the still-feathering ducklings. The only other enclosable area in that corner of the yard contains the coop where most of our hens lay. We thought we should let the Wyandotte stay with her brood, but there really is no place to separate them without upsetting the whole flock or chancing the older ducklings with them.
FYI, we live in Arizona so heating isn't an issue and cooling isn't yet, though the availability of water really is. Also, there are friendly neighborhood hawks (too small to carry off our mature hens), but few other predators.
If we let her keep her little ones with the rest of the hens and ducks, how do I prevent the older birds from eating all of the chick starter and water? (They'll drain any water source quickly, so we just let them drink from the duck pond -- a constantly-refilled kiddie pool.) Can we put them in with the month-olds? Should we put the mother hen in, too, and risk her beating up on the older ducklings?
Not to count my chicks before they hatch, but any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
Our flock: 11 mature hens (mixed ages), 2 mature ducks (male and female), 2 unsexed ducklings (month-old), and 4 apparently-fertilized-quite-far-along duck eggs.
These four duck eggs are sitting beneath a Wyandotte who we brought up from chickhood with the two Cayugas. She sets on them 23.5 hours a day and the drake pokes his nose in to rotate them several times a day, whereas lady duck follows him around, but generally shows no inclination to mother anyone herself. They're about 3-4 weeks in (we didn't really note the time) and look, to our candling, to be almost ready.
The issue is space. Our birds have a free run of the yard and roost in the tree. The area where we would put new chicks (and their presumptive mother) is currently housing the still-feathering ducklings. The only other enclosable area in that corner of the yard contains the coop where most of our hens lay. We thought we should let the Wyandotte stay with her brood, but there really is no place to separate them without upsetting the whole flock or chancing the older ducklings with them.
FYI, we live in Arizona so heating isn't an issue and cooling isn't yet, though the availability of water really is. Also, there are friendly neighborhood hawks (too small to carry off our mature hens), but few other predators.
If we let her keep her little ones with the rest of the hens and ducks, how do I prevent the older birds from eating all of the chick starter and water? (They'll drain any water source quickly, so we just let them drink from the duck pond -- a constantly-refilled kiddie pool.) Can we put them in with the month-olds? Should we put the mother hen in, too, and risk her beating up on the older ducklings?
Not to count my chicks before they hatch, but any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
