Duck is hatching my chicks?

[Anonymous]

Hopefully you can advice me or someone can...

My duck is currently sat on around 15 egg, half are hers but my chickens laid their eggs in her nest. I am presuming when they hatch it will be a mixture of Ducklings & ckicks...

Will the duck be ok to raise the ckicks? I am worried she will try to get them to go into the pond, also do I need to separate them and the mothering duck from the rest of the birds? ie the mallard, chickens and Cockerel? if so for how long?

Sorry for all the questions but I haven't had a duck get broody before so not sure how this will pan out.

Any advice will be most appreciated!

Regards
Cindy

 

[Tim]

Hi Cindy,

The first problem is that duck and chicken eggs have different incubation times. Chickens take 21 days, ducks (in general) 28 days. Assuming they were all laid around the same time, once the chicks start to hatch, she may well abandon the remaining eggs after a short while.

I have hatched ducklings with broody hens but not chicks with ducks. I'm not sure how she will react to chicks but more than likely she will not realise. The water however presents a very difficult problem. She will as you say take them to water and chicks can drown easily. They will also get cold if wet.

If it were me, I would remove the chicken eggs and let her hatch ducklings at 28 days. If you can pop them into an incubator then hatch the chicks, great...

I would definately separate the mother and brood from the flock. The cockerel or other hens will no doubt peck them as they are strangers to them and you could end up with them dead before the mother can protect them.

Do let us know how you get on.... Good Luck!

Tim

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the advice, I will remove the Chick eggs as I dont want her to abandon her own eggs or possibly drown the chicks accidentally.

I will also separate her from the rest of the flock as we get closer to the hatching date, she has been sat on them for 1 week now so we have a long way to go yet.

Regards
Cindy