Who's Your Momma?

The Valiantly Broody Hen

On April 1 of last year, we welcomed a small backyard flock of two ducklins and six chicks.  With chickens you will eventually know the genders and we were happy to know that we did indeed have six laying females.  None turned into a rooster at puberty. 

The ducks, on the other hand, are a bit more difficult to know.  Our beloved Otto and Jemima have very different quacks, one loud, deep and bass; the other sexy and smoker-ish.  When the hens started laying in September, the ducks didn’t follow suit, so we assumed we had two gentlemen.  But, in December Will started noticing some interesting duck togetherness in the back yard.  Kids looked at them dumbfounded – I guess this is how most kids learn about the birds and the bees and the ducks around the world.  Then in January I found a larger egg below the nesting boxes, just lying in the bedding.  When I picked it up I noticed something just below the surface – another egg!  As I rooted around I found six buried duck eggs!

So then I wondered if they had been burying them around the yard, under the hen house and the potting shed.  Time for the real Easter egg hunt, but to no avail.  They could be anywhere!  We gave some to our Chinese friends who were thrilled, mixed them into our scrambled eggs and then what? 

At the same time, Cocoapugs the hen, was trying valiantly to hatch the marble decoy eggs.  (You put those in the nesting boxes to show the hens where to lay.)  Sweet lady gets up but 2 or 3 times a day to eat and drink, fluffs herself out to expand into the entire nest, rotates them faithfully so that they all get a chance to be on the outside of the clutch.  When she does get up, they are perfectly warm.

Then I decided to see what would happen if I put some of these (we think) fertile duck eggs under her.  She needs a job, this sweet hen.  She has happily been sitting on these eggs for over two weeks in record-breaking low temps.  Now I’m frantically scouring the internet to see what to do, if indeed, they hatch.  I have two friends with small hobby farms outside Boulder who would like to have some ducklings; one even has a pond.  But what if the sweet lady gets pissed when she hatches not a chick but a duckling?  Do ducks and chickens keep the eggs at the same temperature?  Will I need to separate the hen from the ducklings?  It seems cruel after her valiant efforts  and her instincts of how to care for them might be better than mine.  Either way, we need a brooder and a heat lamp. 

As with most big questions, in my life, McGuckins Hardware will probably have the answers and the supplies.