Jemima Goes Home

One,  of the Muscovy ducks has been perpetually hatching eggs this summer, only for some unknown reason, she had no babies. The first time she brooded was with another duck in the dog house. They attempted to sit on a bout 30 eggs, some of them chicken and the rest theirs and other ducks. Chicken eggs hatch in 21 days and duck eggs in 28, so that was already a problem, but as it turned out, there were too many eggs for the two ducks and most of them got cold and none hatched. I finally took them away and fed them to the pigs. There were chicks at various stages that had quit developing, likely because they got a chill. The next time Jemimah tried to nest under the chicken coop. She managed to hatch two ducklings, but the puppies played too rough with them and they died. Then Jemima went under the old chicken coop that has been abandoned for a long long time, long before I got here. The problem is that the drake got eaten by the pigs, so her eggs were not fertile. She had four in the nest. Two fell out and she sat on the other two for well over a month. She is scraggly and bedraggled. She has spent most of the past 4 months hidden under buildings and in the dog house, away from the sun and fresh air. She ate and drank only once a day, enough to keep her alive, but certainly not enough to thrive.
So, I took the two eggs out of her nest, broke them and let the dogs lap up the contents. They were not fertile and the yolks were watery from being old and warm. Poor Jemima went back to her nest and tried to find the eggs and fix the nest. Finally she gave up and ambled back to the other ducks. Hopefully she will not go broody until next year and she can recover over the winter. It is wonderful to have a duck mamma raise her babies, but when her own health suffers, then it is time to intervene. Poor Jemima. I sure hope she will have enough strength to stay warm over the winter.

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