Farming Friends Forum

Hot Tags

broody campbell chicken chickens Chicks Drake drakes Duck Duck behaviour Duck Eggs duckling Ducklings Ducks Eggs food Geese goose Guinea Fowl Guinea Fowl Eggs Guinea Fowl Keets Hatching Hatching Eggs help hen Hens housing Incubating Incubation Incubator keets laying mating nest Nesting photos Piglets Pigs Quail Quail behaviour Quail eggs Quails sick Turkeys water wild ducks

Farming Friends Forum » Ducks

1. admin
   Sara @ farmingfriends

   Hi All,
   I have had a comment on my www.farmingfriends.com website asking how to discourage ducks from being broody.

   "I need to stop my ducks going broody. Eggs are removed in the mornings. i have 3 that are sitting. How can I bring them back in to lay as soon as possible? Daisy"

   I don't have experience of ducks being broody but the advice for hens is:

   * If you do not want to let a hen sit on a nest, then it is a good idea to remove the hen from the nest as soon as possible (night time is a good time to do this).
   * Sometimes it is necessary to put a broody hen in a broody coop.
   * A broody coop is a small cage or box which has a wire or slatted bottom to discourage the hen from sitting in the coop as there is no material for nesting.
   * A broody coop can be suspended from the ceiling of the poultry hut so that the hen is not removed from the other hens completely.
   * Food and water must be provided in the coop.
   * After a few days the broody hen can be returned to the rest of the flock.

   Let me know if you have any advice for Daisy about her broody ducks.

   Kind regards
   sara @ farmingfriends

   http://www.farmingfriends.com
   http://farmingfriends.com/shop/

   Posted 3 years ago #

2. campbell ridge
   Administrator

   My campbells stop being broody if you keep on removing the eggs and flatten the straw. Give them plenty of interest outside. If they haven't got to the stage of making a nest they should soon get on with normal behaviour. If they insist on sitting, they should still continue laying till they have a clutch of at least 6 eggs, so removing the fresh ones every day should resolve the matter.

   Sarah L

   Posted 3 years ago #

3. admin
   Sara @ farmingfriends

   Hi Sarah, thanks for this advice. I'll let Daisy know.
   Hope your ducks are doing well. My khaki campbells have never gone broody although they are reknowned for being excellent egg layers so it has probably been bred out of them to a large extent!
   Kind regards
   Sara @ farmingfriends

   http://www.farmingfriends.com
   http://farmingfriends.com/shop/

   Posted 3 years ago #

4. campbell ridge
   Administrator

   Hi Sara, both my girls are still sitting! The large nest, that became two nests has now gone back to being one large one again, with 13 eggs in it as opposed to the 16 that had been laid. We lost one to a squirrel - we think and they appear to have discarded the other 2 as they are soemwhere else in the house. BTW - it is a bit smelly as all three of them - drake and all spend all day in there only coming out approx 3 times for wash and brush up. When Lucy was sitting orinally on her own, there was NO fouling in there at all.
   regards

   Sarah L

   Posted 3 years ago #

5. admin
   Sara @ farmingfriends

   Hi Sarah,
   Glad to hear both your ducks are still sitting. It is interesting to hear about the nests being merged into one. I wonder why they discard eggs - I have heard that they know which have ducklings in as they can feel the movement as they are sitting but don't know if this is true?!
   I bet it is smelly especially in this weather with all three in there all the time!
   I look forward to more updates.
   Kind regards
   sara @ farmingfriends

   http://www.farmingfriends.com
   http://farmingfriends.com/shop/

   Posted 3 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.