If you switched a chicken egg with that of a duck without the hen noticing, what would happen?

8/6/2018

17,131 views

animals Story: If you switched a chicken egg with that of a duck without the hen noticing, what would happen?

He grew up farming banty chickens and ducks, (among other farm animals and crops). Banty chickens are excellent and responsible egg layers, and will not give up until their eggs hatch. When they have a “miscarriage”, they just don't stop trying to lay them. Ducks, on the other hand, quickly loose interest in laying their eggs and wander off. In order to sustain the ducks, my dad’s job was to collect duck eggs and place them under banty chickens.

When they hatched, the banty chickens couldn't tell the difference. But the poor ducklings had a hard time understanding “mom”. Banty chickens dart around eating insects; the ducklings’ natural instinct is to follow their mother in a neat line. Now imagine a bunch of ducklings trying to make a neat line behind their difficult to follow, zigzagging mother.

Oh, and then comes drinking from the pond. A banty chicken will lead her chicks to the pond, and everyone takes a few sips and then proceeds darting about after insects. When a duck goes to the pond with her ducklings, they all just wade in and sip water as they swim around. Now when a banty chicken with ducklings leads everyone to the pond for a few sips of water, all the ducklings instinctively wade in and start swimming around. The poor mother, unaware of her children's swimming abilities, then flips out and runs in circles around the pond frantically clucking at them. All the while, the ducklings swim around wondering “What's up with mom?”.

This information was taken from Quora. Click here to view the original post.

And what about you? How does it strike you? Do you have any thoughts or ideas to share ? You are welcome to do so in the comments below!

#animals #Quora

What are your thoughts on this subject?

135 Comments

Siegfried Proslmeyr

Had the same with turkeys, they make lousy mums on one occasion I had 12 little turkeys hatch but none survived, the mum didn’t look after them very well, not protected them, so the next lot of turkey eggs I put them under a clucky chicken and let her raise them and they all survived and managed to grow up.

ninakamwene

WOW Amazing story, and I learned a lot, and yes next time I will definitely choose a hen mom-ha-ha! Thank you for sharing this. This is why I am on this Quiz Club, it is good for fun and learning.

Gloria

Had a Banty hen show up in our backyard where she laid eggs. My husband switched her eggs with 2 duck. 2 turkey and 2 geese eggs. She just fluffed up and nested and hatched the eggs. Very entertaining to watch her try to teach them to scratch and peck, those web footed birds looked confused. We put a tub in the yard for the ducks and geese but the turkeys would follow them and we would have to get them out. Turned into great watch dogs.

carlthedad

The other side of that is if you let a duck hatch a chick. The mother duck will instinctively kill the chick. Because she knows it can not swim.

guthrie

Been there and done that. It was so much fun to watch. I hatched some turkey eggs in my living room once. They thought I was mama when they hatched. They followed me everywhere. We ended penning them up until they were older.

billysmom

My granny had a huge red hen (origin unknown) that was a terrific mom. Ducks will sometimes eat other ducks eggs or just smash them. Granny put the duck eggs under her red hen and they all hatched and survived.

pamela faulkner

Cats will keep and egge warm. After hatching who knows. If you already had ducks, they might find a step mom who will teach them duck stuff.

marilynmitri

God bless mother love. The poor hens did their best ! I would never play with their nurturing impulses just to see what happens. It seems heartless.

james parrillo

Jemima Puddleduck was a character in Beatrix Potter stories. She learned that she was too impatient to sit until her eggs hatched. Thank you, Christine, James' wife

james parrillo

Linda Ergo, A kind resolution would be to alert the author with the report button. Even English speakers can err grammatically. I would post questions, if I had the talent to create quizzes, instead of only answer them. I wonder if you will submit any for us? Thank you, Christine, James' wife

james parrillo

Heather Leitch, Now, that is unusual to consider.

james parrillo

robert karel, It is her farm story. Perhaps, she was unaware of the hen hatching ducklings, because her Grandma did not have ducks? Thank you, Christine, James' wife

james parrillo

robert karel, I highly suspected it might be true, because of "The Story of Jemima Puddleduck" by Beatrix Potter. Thank you, Christine, James' wife

james parrillo

billysmom, You lived seeing the story of "Jemima Puddleduck" by Beatrix Potter. Thank you, Christine, James' wife

Cindy Ursan

That’s such a cute story!! Thanks for sharing!

Susan Rawlins

I've had that experience - fabulous!!! Hen going crazy with her "babies" swimming around and another time, with just one duckling hatching with baby chicks - when they roosted at night, poor duck had to sit beneath his "siblings" as he couldn't get up on the perch...