Broody duck - should I move her?

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Hi,
I am new to this forum but am after some advice regarding one of my ducks. Over the last couple of weeks, Mrs Weasley (an Abcot Ranger) has been going AWOL for a few hours at a time. I found this strange as she is normally constantly with her companion, Draco (a kharki campbell drake).
Earlier this week she appeared to have gone for good as she wasn't around when I locked them up for the night. Having decided that she must have wandered off a bit too far )or eloped with a wild duck), I had resigned myself to the liklihood that she will have been fox food by now. However, I was amazed, 3 days later to see her in the pen again eating and drinking with the others. It wasn't long before she disappeared again though and I have since discovered that she has made herself a secret little nest in the wood pile in our garden. I don't know how many (if any) eggs she is sitting on as I haven't noticed her move away from the nest since then.
She is quite well hidden (and I haven't told the children as I don't want her to be harrassed) but I am worried that a fox will sniff her out before her eggs are hatched.

Should I leave her where she is and let her take her chances or should I move her and her eggs to a safe place when she next gets up?! I don't want to risk her abandoning her eggs but I don't want her to be eaten either.......
 
Hi :)

It is likely she will be predated upon if you leave her.

I would suggest you build a fox proof fence around her and over her and give her food and water close to her nest.

If you are around and can work out when she comes off for a swim/bathe then you can let her out each day for her ten minutes break.

She may well abandon the nest if you try and move it, and the rest of your flock will harass her if she is in with them.

Tough call, but protecting her in-situ if you can is your best option.

Keep us posted!

zo
x
 
Yes, I agree with D.D. Owner...and prefer to look to the ducks safety in the first instance.
I use big wooden arks for broody ducks and when they start slinking off...find their nest and move it with as much original nesting material to the new area at night. I would rather her desert the new nest but be safe than deal with the tragedy of losing her whilst sitting in a vulnerable nest. It is also better and safer when thinking of her raising her ducklings.
There again I do try to manage our ducks or they would very easily take over :D ...I have had to remove their eggs from some very strange places indeed! :shock:
 
We haven't been able to fence her in where she is as it is in a very awkward place (very well hidden by logs, branches and nettles). I have been blocking the "easy" access entrance at night with a large wire run and have been moving it during the day so that she can come and go with ease but have been discreetly checking on her from time to time.
She still seems happy to sit on the eggs and I sneaked a peak at her nest when she took a break today - there are 4 eggs!
I am not sure of her chances of successfully hatching any of the ducklings as this is her first attempt (All of our previous ducklings have been hatched in an incubator) but assuming she does hatch any I will try and move her into a covered run then - one week down, another 3 to go!

I have everything crossed x
 
Update:

Three weeks down and one to go - all things looking good so far.......except for the fact that I sneaked another quick look in the nest a few days ago and noticed that she now has 9 eggs in the nest!!! I am a little worried about her capabilities to keep them all adequately warm and wonder if she'll continue to lay more and more as the days go by?!

I can't reach the nest without moving lots of heavy branches (and upsetting her big-time) so there isn't really a lot I can do about it but it would be such a shame if all of her efforts were in vain!

She seems to be doing a good job so far - she takes about 10 minutes break a day and when I looked in the nest about a week ago, I couldn't see any of the eggs as she'd covered them all with a layer of feathers before leaving them - bless her!
 
That's great to know......although I might not be quite so impressed if they all turn out to be drakes ;-)
 
I can't describe just how gutted I am this morning :-( I went out this morning and discovered that Mrs Weasley has gone and all that was left of the nest was a single broken shell.

I was really hoping o be able to report a happy ending to this tale :-( :-(
 
You must be absolutely devastated. We had exactly the same thing with one of our mallards last year, still haven't really come to terms with it. Thoughts are with you.
Zo
x
 
Thank you.

Whatever it was that took Mrs Weasley and her eggs took the time to take the eggs about 60metres accross our field and eat the contents of at least two of the eggs on top of a four foot fence post - found the evidence this morning! Of course this may have been an opportunist after the duck had been killed but the nest was pretty well hidden and it seems strange for the eggs to have been moved so far from the nest?! Also of course, they may not be her egg shells I have found but they are the right size and colour so I would be very surprised if they weren't. :-(
 
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