Let's talk ducks!

Let's talk ducks.

They are the worst mothers and probably made more so in the presence of chickens. What happens is the ducks find what they think is a safe place and start 'building' their nest. An egg a day, cover it up and walk away. But then along comes a chicken - finds the nest, says "Oh that's convenient" lays an egg and walks away.

Back comes duck. Sits on nest. Cycle continues. For days and days. Then the duck decides there are 'enough' eggs so starts to sit in earnest. But half the eggs are hen's. If it's a good duck, she chucks these out after a fortnight or so (presumably when the noises inside the eggs start not to sound like ducklings?). But a not-so-good duck sits and then gets confused (chickens hatch after 21 days and ducklings after 28) because the egg makes like it's going to hatch but it doesn't (is it something to do with temperature?I don't know) So, one of two things happen. The duck gets really confused and gives up and walks off - leaving a nest of some 15-20 eggs, at least half of which are ducks' eggs. So nothing hatches. Or, only a few ducklings hatch because the stupid chicken races to sit on the nest and lay her egg whilst the duck is away for food - and the chicken doesn't get up in time at the crucial stage and so the ducklings either don't hatch or only a few hatch......

And the latter is what's happened this year. 5 Ducks made nests to date. One hatched a duckling but it didn't survive.... I think the duck got pushed off the nest by a hen who then beat up the little one. Two others have managed to hatch a few eggs; of these, one hen has one duckling (of 4) left and the other has managed successfully to look after 3 out of 5. This contrasts with the year before last when the ducks left the hen house (thanks to the 'raiding' by the pigs!) and found nesting places well away from the hens and managed to raise broods of 10 or more.

The lesson is - keep ducks and chickens well apart when the broody season comes round.

I will work on this for next year.

Funnily enough, once hatched, chickens tend to leave ducklings alone. The real danger seems to be the other mother ducks beating up each other (and the ducklings). But then the chickens get nasty because if they spy a poorly duckling, they go and pick on it till it dies - unless a human is quick enough to intervene.

Another reason to keep ducks and chickens apart.

Meanwhile, I have two more ducks sitting on nests: one of these has at least 50% chicken eggs and the other I don't know about because the mother has not been off the nest when I've been around. So, who knows what will be produced? In the past I've always thought the most dangerous time for ducklings is the first 48 hours when, if they don't get beaten up by other ducks or hens they are in danger of falling on their backs and, their wings not being very strong, can't get back upright. Or they get walked to death by their mothers. Now I realise that is the least of their problems.

It is probably best to remove ducks and ducklings to a safe place and keep watch on them for the first 48 hours or so.

Something else to think about for next year!