Yikes, an egg hatched, now what???????Advice.

[mominoz]

--Oh my fosterduck mother worked!!!! I had tried to hatch some of my Holderead Runners fertile eggs under a goose.. but the eggs disappeared, possibly due to a snake or rat getting under the nest (they disappeared totally in the night pen)...so I tried giving about 3 or 4 eggs to the Miniduck Overberg(?) as Twinkie seemed to want to set. Now one has hatched ! Here is the set up . They have a wood house attached to a 2X2 wire and hardware cloth run with a swim pan in it. About 4 feet long X 2 ft. with another side identical with 3 miniducks in it.divided with hardware cloth from the appleyard minis.
Now what to do?
1) She is taking good care of the baby right now (it was still wet when I saw it). It is now dark and the baby crawled under her and she is making soft mommy noises.There are still eggs . I had given her eggs over a 3 day period... and never messed with them after that. Now the questions: should i let her raise them or take them out and put in a brooder ? I brooder them last year in my garage, but it is in the 90's daytime and 70's night, so garage may be too hot, the other choice is a AC room in the house with the brooder set up for a couple weeks or? move out the other mini's and put the babies in the other half with a brooder light?(seems they'd be better in the outside set up with mom and no brooder light?)
2) What about the water pool? it is a 6" deep rec. pan? at the other end of the outside pen about 4 feet away(they have to jump in to get in it).I don't want the babies to drown- - or just lower the water leverl to say 2" and put in rocks so they could get out?Or just take it out till they are what age? Or just put it in a couple hours a day ?
3)Should I remove her mate/drake? He is rather mild mannered and they seem to be ok together so far?
4)take out the Maxwell house plastic coffeecan water bowl (too deep?) and give a smaller waterer I used for the baby brooder last year?
5) The floor of the house that the nest is in is dirty (I was going to clean it tomorrow, egg hatched sooner than I thought it would) her nest is in a pan ,which is clean , but there is about 3 square feet that has an half inch of poo and old bedding around it? Or is it worse to clean around her when the eggs are hatching? don't believe I let it go so long, was afraid to disturb her on the nest...

 

[Featherland]

Congratulations! It is so exciting to see a broody with babies. It is so much easier to leave the babies with the mom if you can. I would just try to adjust the coop and pen to safely accomodate the new duckling(s). But I would be prepared to move them in case of any problems.

 

[mominoz]

thanks, I now have 2 baby Penciled Runners and they sure can run and jump around the pen! Another egg looks to be starting to hatch and then there is another still, maybe 4 babies if i am lucky. I added pine straw after cleaning up and found a smaller waterer . I cleaned out the pond and put rocks in it so if they got in , they could get out., and lowered the water lever to 2-3". Mom sure is loud, now I know what "madder than a wet hen" duck) means!Hopefully I can get a video of the little guys.