14 ducklings + 2

Ducklings in the East nest box jumped yesterday morning. Incubation was less than perfect as I’ve written in previous posts, with some eggs left in corners that were very cold whenever I checked. I expected there would be some late ducklings, and that did occur.

Wood duck ducklings need about 20 to 24 hours to develop enough strength to climb out, follow their mother, and swim. If a duckling hatches many hours after the others it is not developed enough to leave but the mother duck can’t wait. Her ducklings need to eat and her instinct is driven by the energy level of the group. When that is right she calls for them to leave.

In some cases a duckling is very late, just hatching when the family leaves and in a few cases a duckling will hatch after they’ve left. Here’s a video I made in 2021 called “Little Woodie’s First Day” about a very late duckling that hatched all alone during a warm night. That duckling lived; the video has a happy ending! 

14 wood duck ducklings jumped from East nest box Sunday morning during a long 8 minutes (often it’s much quicker), leaving two that were noticeably smaller and weaker still trying to get out, but they couldn’t climb up to the door.

The door is about 10 inches up in the nest box. It could be 10 feet up for a wild nest in a hollow tree. A wood duck requires enough depth between the door and the ducklings so a predator (e.g. raccoon) can’t reach the ducklings. It will not use a nest that has a door that is too low.

The two in the nest box continued peeping which kept the mother (with her 14 little ones) nearby, still calling for them. They tried again and again but they just couldn’t do it: one hop up was all the older one could accomplish before its little legs gave out and it dropped back down. Even if it had gotten out it would not have been able to keep up. The littlest one stopped trying first, then after many minutes, the older one too. Momma duck and her family left.

Six eggs did not hatch: five wood duck eggs and one hooded merganser egg.

I taped a piece of window screen over the nest box door partly to keep the two little ducklings in and safe and partly to keep other curious ducks out. I gave the two some hours to rest and get stronger after working so hard.

Ducklings absorb egg yolk into their bodies – it’s high-powered nourishment that lasts for 2 or 3 days. They grow significantly in both size and strength in their first 20 hours.

Then, in the early afternoon …

Their chance for survival is probably higher than their siblings. They’ll be fed and protected until they are ready to go back into the wild … to someday raise ducklings of their own.