Will Mallard abandon her eggs if I move them??

[Sassy1967]

My Mallard hen is approximately 7 months old. At night, they go in the chicken coop and sleep with the chickens

In the morning, I let them all out so they can free range. About a week ago, I noticed that the duck hen, went straight to the garden and she's been doing that every morning since then. I casually walked by there today and peeked while she wasn't looking and found a little nest with 4 eggs in it. My question is,...now what do I do?? If I leave the nest where it is, and not put her up at night, I'm afraid something will get her. What would you do in this situation?? Thanks for all feedback

 

[Sassy1967]

Btw, today I noticed she's laid another egg. Time is running out for me to find a solution. We've bought another enclosure and plan on putting their pool and house in there. But I'm afraid if I move her eggs into that enclosure,..she'll abandon them. Help

 

[farmdude]

I had a similar problem where I had a ducks in the barn for winter and I moved them to another area come spring. I did move the eggs. They didn't get it at first, but they did accept the new nest after a few days, added eggs to the new nest and did go broody on them. They were in an enclosed pen in both situations. I would suggest you move them if she is in danger in the garden. Better to loose a few eggs if she rejects them,(she'll lay more) then to loose your duck. Hope this helps.

 

[sourland]

Remove the eggs, move the ducks to a safe pen, and when she builds a nest in there add the original eggs. It is late in the season and she may not brood this batch anyway.

 

[Sassy1967]

Thank ya'll very much! She stopped laying a couple of days ago, so we're going to go ahead and put up the new enclosure, get her settled in there and see what happens. In the mean time, we took her eggs and put them with a broody chicken. So far, so good! The chicken is quite happy to take over and we couldn't be more pleased. Thank ya'll so much for your responses! It's nice to have somewhere to get answers to problems