My First Duck Egg from Flightless Duck

I adopted a little Mallard / Muscovey hybrid some weeks ago and because of the whistling noise it made I decided it was a girl. Well I found a little egg in the crate two days ago . Because her wing is broken she has been sleeping in a crate in a room in the back yard at night. Me carrying her in and out of the room each day has made her very tame and she is so sweet but gets picked on by the chickens, the goslings and the goose because she is so gentle.
This morning I put her out in the garden as usual and she must have climbed the fence (not a real fence, but it's a good 60cm high!) because I found her back at the room pacing and muttering outside the door. I realised she wanted "in" but I thought it was for mealworms, so I put her in the crate where she gets her treats and she immediately started scratching up all the wood shavings. Only then I realised she wanted her nest. I've left her in the crate because I had to come to work, but what now?

Goose (her mate ) is brooding a single egg, which may have set the duck off I guess. I'm thinking of putting the crate in the garden, so she has free access to her nest and she can sleep in there at night too. I hope the chickens don't take it over, they're so pushy! What do you guys think? Her behaviour is so different to the goose's!

That is so sweet!! Her and you taking such good care of her!

She has adopted the crate as her safe place, so naturally she will want to lay her eggs there... I would move it to where she has free access to it at will and hopefully the chickens will leave it and her alone...

Thanks for the feedback, I'll do the move this evening. At least it's warmer out in the evenings now that Summers started arriving.

New eggs 1 and 4. The photo doesn't do them justice, they are so dainty and that's a Large shop bought hens egg, would you believe... and the other two are goose eggs.

I now understand what is meant that duck eggs are "waxy"

Allears said:

New eggs 1 and 4. The photo doesn't do them justice, they are so dainty and that's a Large shop bought hens egg, would you believe... and the other two are goose eggs. I now understand what is meant that duck eggs are "waxy"

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Too cute!! Yep, they are waxy, lol... I can tell a duck egg any day from just feel... I have a Call duck who just started laying... talk about tiny duck eggs...

Is your Call duck hen from this years hatch? I have a gray hen that hasn't started laying yet, but i'm hoping she will instead of waiting until spring!

tomynoks said:

Is your Call duck hen from this years hatch?   I have a gray hen that hasn't started laying yet, but i'm hoping she will instead of waiting until spring! 

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Yes, she is... hatched May 18th... but she has been more of a house duck as she was an only hatch from her batch...

We didn't expect her to start til spring, but she spends the night inside still... she's a bit spoiled, lol...


Lady Grey...

Look at the sheen on those feathers! Pretty girl

She's about the size that my little Yellow-billed Duck will be. It's amazing to think that so many eggs can come from those little bodies!

Allears said:

Look at the sheen on those feathers! Pretty girl 

She's about the size that my little Yellow-billed Duck will be. It's amazing to think that so many eggs can come from those little bodies!

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Thank you!

I know I can't believe how they do that every day!

Would love to see pics of yours...

I'll post some photo's this evening