My ducks mated, now what?

My ducks are out playing in their water, I came around the corner and saw my male mounted on one of the females, this happened 20 minutes ago. The next egg that female lays, will it be fertile or does it take a while? Also do I need an incubator? Will the chickens kill the ducklings when hatched? The breed is khaki campbell and golden 300 hens with an unknown male.

Crazy4Fowl said:

My ducks are out playing in their water, I came around the corner and saw my male mounted on one of the females, this happened 20 minutes ago. The next egg that female lays, will it be fertile or does it take a while? Also do I need an incubator? Will the chickens kill the ducklings when hatched? The breed is khaki campbell and golden 300 hens with an unknown male.

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Your eggs should be viable as long as the male is fertile. Chickens make great foster parents for ducklings, but they are apt to be very confused when their babies start swimming away. Keep them penned after hatching; at least for a little while.

Crazy4Fowl said:

My ducks are out playing in their water, I came around the corner and saw my male mounted on one of the females, this happened 20 minutes ago. The next egg that female lays, will it be fertile or does it take a while? Also do I need an incubator? Will the chickens kill the ducklings when hatched? The breed is khaki campbell and golden 300 hens with an unknown male.

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Whether it will be fertile depends on whether the mating was successful, among other things. You don't need an incubator for ducklings unless you'd prefer to incubate. You can let one of the ducks set on the eggs, which they won't do until they have a number of eggs they consider worth setting on. There's not a way for you to predict how many eggs that will be since some ducks will go broody with just a few eggs, while others will lay for weeks before they're satisfied with the number of eggs they have. Our Khaki Campbell didn't start setting this year until there were 18 eggs in her nest.

Quote: Ok thanks for the help, both of you!

My Cayuga's aren't laying yet. They're six months old. I didn't know we had a Drake out of the four! No Drake feather yet.

With the shorter days you may not see eggs till next year my Runners and Buffs were laying machines till shorter day light now it's off an on.

Are you seeing breeding?

Yes

Miss Lydia said:

With the shorter days you may not see eggs till next year my Runners and Buffs were laying machines till shorter day light now it's off an on.

Are you seeing breeding?

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! Just today for the first time! That's why I started posting and got so excited I forgot that part!

Well if breeding has just started you still may see some eggs. Really depends on the breed.

Ok, they are Cayuga.

Miss Lydia said:

Well if breeding has just started you still may see some eggs. Really depends on the breed.[/QUOTE

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Not sure if they are considered the high volume laying breed like KC or Pekins my Runners and Buffs laid a lot of eggs especially their first year. I'd rather not have high volume laying breeds they seem to live longer with less health issues. My Muscovy's even take the winter off from laying.