duck eggs under a chicken

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Has anyone ever had success with raising ducks with a chicken hen? I put some duck eggs under a chicken this summer, the eggs hatched, but the ducklings would pay absolutely no attention to the mother chicken hen. I figured it was a language problem! Some ran away from her and got lost in the weeds, others wouldn't pay attention to her when she called them to eat. The ducklings all died. I have heard of people hatching different species eggs under a chicken, but I thought the chicken could also raise the young ones. After all I figured a mother was better than none. But motherless youngsters from a hatchery have fared better.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), November 23, 1999

Answers

i have seen chickens hatch and raise ducks successfully many times. some hens are not always the best mothers we usually confine our hens with newly hatched little ones in a small pen for a week of two. the hens don't seem to miss their little guys untill the loose most of them and keeping them penned up for a few days gives them a chance to get started before their mother drags them all over the farm....ron

-- ron in n.y. (ronmister@hotmail.com), November 24, 1999.

We did it years ago. We had friends with ducks, but the ducks wouldn't sit long enough to hatch any eggs. So we put duck eggs under one of our setting hens, and they hatched fine. She raised them with no problems until one rainy day when they discovered the water coming off the henhouse roof and played in it, while the hen made a terrible fuss from the shelter of the henhouse door. The hen never acted quite the same to the ducklings after that, but they were old enough to be on their own, too.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), November 24, 1999.

I've done it several times with no problems. It is true that keeping them penned for a while will maximize your success. I find that hens will lose chicks too if they are not penned up. Our hen nearly had a stroke when the ducklings hopped in the little kiddie pool. But she got over it.

-- Lani Jacobs (mlrd@together.net), November 24, 1999.

A couple of comments,I apologise in advance if these are redundant. A broody enough hen may hatch the ducklings-assuming she doesn't leave the nest too soon. Don't feed the ducklings commercial chick feed-it contains antibiotics that are toxic to ducklings[-and goslings].Go with an un medicated "turkey/gamebird starter. Keep the hen and ducklings[or chicks]protected on ALL sides-I've had mink tunnel under an open[bottom]cage and kill the entire lot.Use small mesh so coons/possums can't reach in and pull chunks of birds through the wire.Use a locked cover,in case you get coons or domestic dogs knocking over the cages.Aerial i.e.overhead protection helps too:raptors+coons.Get rid of your local barn rat population,I've seen rats take chicks out of a nest.All of the above have happened here. S.N.young waterfowl are extremely fragile and can't be medicated. If one is sick,keep it:warm,dry,plenty of clean food and clean water- hope hope for the best. Hope it helps.

-- Karl Bechler (kbechler@frontiernet.net), November 25, 1999.

A good mothering hen will hatch about any kind of egg I think. A friend had quail eggs and her incubator wouldn't work after she got them. We put them under one of the hens and she hatched them with no problem.

-- Marci (ajourend@libby.org), November 28, 1999.


My favorite subject!! I love playing games with my poor birds' eggs!! Never had a problem. I've had a silky bantam hen who hatched and raised a toulouse gosling, another who hatched and raised several ducklings, and lots of hens who hatched and raised turket poults for me. I once had a pea hen who must have laid only infertile eggs. The poor thing sat and sat, but the eggs wouldn't hatch. I felt bad for her, and one day while she was off the eggs, I threw them out and gave her a muscovy duck egg that was just sharting to hatch. The next day, I had a very proud mama peacock strutting around the barnyard, showing off her little duck. She took very good care of him, and seemed to enjoy the experience. When the little ducking was about half grown, he left her to join the rest of the young muscovy flock. It about broke the poor peacock's heart. Ah! The price of motherhood!

-- kim (barkinbarnyard@rrv.net), July 21, 2000.

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