[Mary B]

Hi

Can anyone help us?  We've got 3 kayuga ducklings, now 2 weeks old, which were hatched out by a broody hen.  She's still busy trying to teach them to scratch and peck and behave like hens, while they bounce up and down in a shallow water tray, trying to be ducks.  I could watch them endlessly!

But presumably, our hen will want to go back to the other hens at some stage. At the moment she's in an enclosure in the garden, with the ducklings and the other hens are out of sight.

When should we separate them, and how?

Any ideas?

Thank you.

[doganjo]

From my limited knowledge of 2 ducklings raised by hens you need her to be at close range to the other hens or she will have a problem going back in with them.  Can you perhaps move the hen and her adoptees so they are next to the others but protected?  Your problem is going to be deciding when the ducklings are big enough not to be attacked by the hens.  James will be better able to help you here I think.  I imagine by the time they are a few weeks old they should be OK, they do grow pretty fast in the first few weeks.  I never actually separated mine totally so the ducks grew up recognising the hens as part of the flock and vice versa
Hope that is of some help.

[jameslindsay]

Hi Mary. Strictly speaking you could remove the hen from the ducklings just now as it is warm enough outside now without her being the one providing heat for them. However, I don't think you are doing any harm by leaving them and I'm sure that instinct will eventually "kick in" for the ducklings. I know of someone who had the same situation and every time the ducklings went off on the water the mother hen "freaked out". I would start introducing the family to both your other ducks and hens for short periods at a time and I am sure all will turn out well. The most important thing is that the ducks are getting access to swimming water and therefore are waterproofing themselves. Enjoy this stage with them as they grow so very fast. Shame that ducks are such crap mothers really.