Our hen hatched her clutch yesterday but at present I cannot tell how many of the dozen eggs she was incubating are now ducklings. I am very happy with this now because I see my concerns were not founded.

The dilemna now is now to move the brood and hen to a safe place? When she first started setting I tried to move her and the clutch to a caged run but the hen would have none of that so I moved her and the eggs back to the goat house where she originally laid her clutch in the straw. Now that they have hatched, I don't want to have all of them in there with all the commotions and larger animals moving about. Momma won't let me even touch her let alone pick her up to move her to a new location. I do want her to raise the ducklings naturally so do not want to put the babies in an artificial brooder.

Lastly, when do the babies start eating?

Thanks for the advice and help.

Mike

The ducklings will start eating as soon as they find food. If you catch the hen and hold her firmly so that she can't flap, the ducklings won't go far. We moved a mallard and her ducklings last week. Ducks are my favorite thing on the farm. I tend to lose track of time when I find the ducks and ducklings in the pond.

It turned out to be a brood of ten little ones and now 12 days later all are doing wonderfully.

My first brood...I am so proud I could burst ;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Lucy and her odd little ducks

awwwwww They're very cute!

I added blues and chocolates to my fawns this year. I'm raising the blues and chocolates. I tried to give two of them to a mallard yesterday. I hoped she'd take those two and the other six but it didn't work. She has two ducklings (one mallard, one runner) yesterday. They were very interested in having her for a mom but they freaked her out. I thought she might accept them in time but they started to attack the younger ducklings. So much for that idea. I have a fawn on a nest with about two weeks to go.

Unasked for advice but I'd hate to see a fire start - the heat lamp is too close to the straw. A friend lost part of her barn and a lot of her livestock this spring when a heat lamp over calves caught straw on fire. It's been three months and some of the animals that survived are still healing from their burns. The hen will keep her clutch warm.

I got 5 Indian runners less than a year ago, as far as I've been able to tell I have 4 hens and 1 drake. This past week I noticed that 3 of the hens are brooding, I'm so excited......what do I need to know, as I am new to this??? Any advice/suggestions are greatly welcome!

Thanks,
Karyl

I have two indian runners "Quack and Poop"(Grandkids picked names lol) Poop has a nest in a doghouse and at first she had alot of eggsin there ,it seems like shes been sitting on them forever, But now she has moved to the back and all the eggs except for some in front of dh and however many shes sitting on has diminished greatly, What happened to them?