These ducks are not supposed to be good brooders but mine are persistent so we thought we would sit it out and see how it goes.
My girls - Abigail and Lucy have been sitting now, one for 13 days, the other for 11 days. They now have a nest each - (they were sharing originally with 13 eggs) side by side in the lower side of the coop. One has 6 eggs, the other has 10!
Not sure whose is whose, as they don't like anyone looking in but I'm sure they have sorted it out for themselves quite nicely. Their eggs are very slightly different and each nest seems to have it's own eggs. George the drake has been sitting in there with them all day every day since about a week ago, when he was feeling very sorry for himself and looked very lonely. He is doing a good job of guarding them from in there.
We have to encourage them out (squawking and flapping) 3 times a day for a wash and brush up and food of course, otherwise they would sit in there all day and not venture out at all.
We have found they really need their routine and have to have their food and water in the same place else they get confused and don't seem to be able to work out where things have gone. These are placed at the far end of their run. At first they seemed frightened each time they went back in their coop as we realised that they had had a visit from a squirrel/rodent, when they were out foraging one day. Since then, they haven't left the compound at all.
They now only use the paddling pool first thing in the morning, and use the wash up bowl to drink and bathe if they need to.
will keep you posted how things progress.
Sarah
