Devonviolet's Broody Hen Raising Ducklings

[Southern by choice]

What do you have down in the stalls? It looks like a tarp? What are you going to put over it? Is it for the goats?
Sorry I have not been able to keep up ... you may have already mentioned all this.

 

[Devonviolet]

I mentioned, yesterday, that we put the remaining five duck eggs under our turkey hen, Edith. As of this evening none of those eggs had hatched. So, I am hopeful, that at least 2 or 3 of those eggs hatch out some Muscovy ducklings.

Here she is setting in the corner nest, on "her" eggs, before we moved the mother hen & her ducklings.

 

[Devonviolet]

What do you have down in the stalls? It looks like a tarp? What are you going to put over it? Is it for the goats?
Sorry I have not been able to keep up ... you may have already mentioned all this.

Yes, that is a blue painter's tarp, on the floor. For the time being, we are putting down wood chips, for the ducklings.

We know, from experience, how wet ducks are. DH has put three coats of a sealer, called WaterLox, on the plywood floor. The plan, with goats is to use straw litter on the floors. We've done that in our goat shed, for the wethers, and its working fine. So, once we have moved the ducks outside, the tarp will come up & once the floor has dried out, we will put down a nice layer of dry straw.

 

[animalmom]

Wow! Good luck with your duckies!

 

[Devonviolet]

Mama chicken was setting on her ducklings last night, when I checked her, after dark. This morning, she was in exactly the same spot setting on her babies.

This morning, we could tell Mama, and the ducklings had been eating & drinking. So, all is well with the world.

Edith, our turkey hen, continues to set on her eggs. However, this evening, when DH checked under her, he could only feel 3 eggs. So, he moved her, and in addition to the 3 eggs, he found a broken egg with a dead duckling in it.

The puzzling thing is, I KNOW I put 5 eggs under Edith, and we can't find the 5th egg.

This evening, before we came in, after milking the goats, we checked our Mama chicken & her babies. There she sat, with 4 ducklings snuggled underneath her. She is such a good mama!!!

 

[goatgurl]

those baby ducks are so cute! mama hen looks so proud. looks like edith is doing a good job sitting on 'her' eggs. it should take another 7 days for the muscovy eggs to hatch. if something should happen to them (I can't imagine how she broke a duck egg or where the other egg went. snake?) then get some more Muscovy eggs to put under her and start over. just be careful to only get the Muscovy eggs or you will have the same problem over again with different hatch dates. hope all goes well.

 

[Mini Horses]

Cute, cute, cute. The faces on ducklings is adorable. Poor Edith, she just wants to be a mom! She a lovely bird & could sure cover a lot of eggs for you! Can't wait to see that group.

My BO hen is covering 12 eggs nicely. Hope I get a good hatch rate. She was a great mom last year! If one of the others goes broody, I would set more eggs. Opening & closing their little coops each day is a lot easier than my being "mom"!

 

[Devonviolet]

Last night, when we checked on, fed and watered our hen & ducklings, the ducklings were all under "mom".

When they heard us talking, they all came out. One went into the nest box & the rest went into the corner with mom. Well, mom seemed to count them & realized one was missing. She started looking all around, calling to the missing duckling. She finally went around and looked in the nest box. The duckling came running to mom & you could almost see her relax.

It just amazed us that she counted & knew one was missing. Once she found it, all was well with her world!

 

[Mike CHS]

This thread just keeps getting better.

 

[Devonviolet]

When we moved Mom & the 4 ducklings to the barn, there were 5 eggs that hadn't hatched yet.

Edith our turkey hen was brooding in her nest, in the corner of the chicken coop. So, we put the remaining 5 eggs under her.

In the 3 days since we put the eggs under Edith, we have lost 3 eggs. So, we now have 2 eggs under Edith.

** One egg broke - there was no duckling in it.
** One egg disappeared - we're wondering if a snake got it during the night?
** We found one egg open with a dead duckling in it.

So, since we still have 2 eggs, which have gone beyond 30 days, we are hoping these last 2 eggs are Muscovy eggs.