The Lonely Duck Makes a Plan | Chickens in the Road

Apr
26

My dear little lonely duck has been on her own now for about five months. Oh, she has company.

Chickens.

Dastardly creatures, those chickens.

She wonders where, oh where, did her people go?

I wonder where they went, too.

To keep her from running off with the rest of them, I’ve kept her in the chicken house now for months. A group of chickens who like to roost in the chicken house at night come in every evening. They go out again in the morning. I usually leave one or two hens in with her so she’s not completely alone.

But, still, they’re chickens. Not ducks.

I’m not sure she really appreciates their companionship, but it’s the best I can do right now. I’ve got six ducklings in the brooder, but she doesn’t know about that yet.

She does her best to get through her days of quiet solitude.

She reads a lot of books. (She likes romantic mysteries.) She watches a little TV, and she enjoys macrame. Still, there are just so many plant hangers you can make.

And she is so very lonely. She’s always prepared for company, for the return of her lost loved ones. She primps every day. Just in case!

She lays one lovely duck egg every day, too, which I pick up and take home for baking. I love duck eggs! Of course, she is all alone, so her eggs aren’t fertile, but–

She doesn’t know that, either. She reads romantic mysteries, remember. She is a dreamer and a believer. Puzzles can be solved if only you try.

And so she came up with an idea!

Hatched a plan, if you will.

She’d make a nest. Start sitting on her eggs. She could MAKE her own friends!!!!

She’s been collecting in a broody fervor. So far she’s sitting on two duck eggs, two chicken eggs, and a golf ball.

Just don’t tell her…..

OH, PLEASE, don’t tell her–

That the only thing in there that’s gonna hatch are the CHICKENS!!!!

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4-26
4:45
am

Poor duck! I had a cockatiel that would lay eggs all the time too. She would get broody and I let her keep the eggs for a while. But I also felt sorry for her, that the sitting game would never end, and so I would take them from her to set her free from her neverending obligation. Being a single mom is sooo tough!

Cynthia Stinson

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4-26
5:03
am

Can you keep her sitting and then slide your babies from the brooder under her when they hatch?

carsek

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4-26
6:06
am

I was thinking that, too, Carsek. I put baby chicks under a hen in the night time. I took the eggs and slipped the babies under her. They immediately started their content little cheeping and Momma hen was so happy!

CATRAY44

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4-26
6:43
am

Oh, poor Ms. Duck. She’ll be happy, even if she does hatch some chickens…..she may even start liking chickens! But she’ll be happier yet when the little ducks can join her and she’ll be the grown up to show them everything!

CindyP

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4-26
6:59
am

Poor Miss Duck. It will be intresting to see what happens when her chicken eggs hatch. lol.

Diane

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4-26
7:11
am

The brooder babies are already hatched! We bought them all as day-olds.

Suzanne McMinn

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4-26
7:15
am

I put chicks that were close to a week old under my broody, in the night. Worked great!

CATRAY44

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4-26
7:20
am

Won’t she be surprised when the ducklings show up.

Lori Skoog

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4-26
7:52
am

She’s going to be awfully frustrated when she tries to teach the chicks how to swim. Hope a smooth swap-out works. Suzanne, thank you for the link to your newspaper article that you put in your other post today. I really enjoyed that article and forwarded it to a friend.

Barbee'

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4-26
8:10
am

It will be nice when she has proper company! When do the ducklings get to join her?

Julie

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4-26
8:27
am

How long has she been setting? I’ve heard that they won’t accept babies until they have been setting for awhile.

Cheryl LeMay

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4-26
8:37
am

Oh, I hope you can sneak the babies in with her, and she belives they are hers. Broody birds are so sad when they cannot have babies. I have 2 very broody chickens – all they want out of life is babies!!! I know your lonely duck will be so very happy when she sees the ducklings!! Take pictures for us, please!

Lynn

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4-26
8:43
am

When I placed babies under my broody, I kept it very dark. I shone the flashlight briefly, so I could find my way, then turned it off. I stood near by for long enough to hear the babies and mom were sounding happy- no pecking of screaming from mom, then left them. In the morning, the babies were all peeking out from under the broody’s wings. So cute. I had 3 broody’s at the time, and all three raised those babies together. It was hilarious. They encircled the babies like Secret Service guys (my husband thought I should by them mirrored sunglasses, lol!) They would herd those babies all over the yard, all together.

CATRAY44

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4-26
9:13
am

Do you know anyone that has fertile duck eggs? If you could get some you could trade out the ones she’s sitting on with the fertile eggs and she would get her ducky babies!

I tried giving a broody hen some baby chicks and she tried to hurt them so I had to get them out of there ASAP!

If you can’t get duck eggs you could always give her a few more hen eggs but there will be great confusion when she can’t get them to go swimming with her. If I’m not sure of the fertility of the eggs a hen is on, I switch the ones she’s sitting on with a new batch that I know is fertile and will all hatch at the same time.

We had an old hen once that hatched 13 duck eggs. She went CRAZY when those little dicks found the pond and took their first dip!

Good luck Miss Duck!!! Hope you get some babies soon!

I have an order in for 4 baby geese that just hatched out last weekend. They guy is trying to decide how many he wants to sell.

KentuckyFarmGirl

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4-26
10:32
am

This really brightened my day. I enjoy reading almost all of you entries. thank you for sharing with the internet world.

debra abshier

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4-26
11:07
am

that would be sweet if she had some chicks following her around… er wait, can chickens swim?

Sasha

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4-26
11:12
am

Pictures of the babies, please. Always love the baby pics!!!

Susan at Charm of the Carolines

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4-26
1:17
pm

I hope the switches work so Mrs. Duck can finally have her babies!!

Nancy in Iowa

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4-26
1:47
pm

Where are those baby duckling you had? Aren’t they big enough to go in with her? Poor Miss Duck.

Shirley Corwin

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4-26
2:10
pm

That poor baby!! I have a duck just like her named Lily. As I described in my blog Lilly’s bf was killed and she squawed continuously until I went to the auction and brought home a muscovey drake and two hens. She is now very happy. Our chickens just didn’t get do if for her – she needed duck company

Teri

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4-26
2:42
pm

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

catslady

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4-26
3:57
pm

Poor lonely little duck!

Estella

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4-26
10:00
pm

Awe that was a sweet story……. Does broody hen not have a name? I think she needs a name god love the wee thing a golf ball really.
Duck eggs are great for baking.
Have good one Ann.

Ann

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4-26
10:15
pm

The more I read, the more I miss the ducks and geese I had when I lived in Missouri. I named the three ducks, “Duck, Duck, Goose!”
I let it up to them who was “goose” for the day. LOL Fond memories, thanks once again!

CherShots

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4-26
11:41
pm

Don’t know if this is true or not….but dad told me that when a duck hatches her eggs she needs to have access to water (for swimming around in) and the eggs need the moisture from her wet feathers, as well as the warmth from her brood patch, in order to hatch out.
I grew up out in the country, as dad did before me, so I am inclined to believe him.
Just in case you decide to get some fertilized duck eggs to slip under Ms. Lonely Duck.

Vanessa

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4-27
1:03
am

When we had chickens, we also put new chicks under them at night. And they accepted them just fine. They didn’t even seem surprised that their “pregnancies” were of such short duration! Just, “Oh! Maybe I’ve been sitting here longer than I think I have!”

Mokihana

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4-27
4:07
pm

Suzanne, you make me laugh so hard. Farming has never been so charming and funny until I started reading your stories. I don’t care what kind of cranky mood I’m in, just a quick visit to Chickens in the Road, and I’m all good again. Your insights are priceless. You should compile some of these great observations in a book. I’ll bet people would love it. I would. I love the way you bring out the personalities of the various farm animals–it’s just so charming (I say again, at the risk of being repetitive, but that’s how I feel about your stories).

P.J.

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