Broody duck kicking eggs out

I have a duck who's been sitting on a nest with at least fourteen eggs for quite a while(Don't know exactly how long), and doing a very good job of it despite the awful heat wave, but this morning, when I went to go check on her, there was one egg that wasn't in the nest; it was sitting maybe six inches away from it. And when I went to go check on her just now, there were two other eggs with the first. Is it possible that she could tell that those ones might not have made it? Is it possible that she's kicking them out because there are too many for her, or she can't stand the heat of all the eggs?
Thanks.

She may be able to tell that those eggs have stopped developing. Fourteen eggs is a lot but if she is a big duck then fourteen is probably not too many. Its not likely to be because she herself has got too hot due to the eggs (her natural body temperature would be higher than the eggs). It may be that the very hot weather has killed a couple of eggs (maybe) and so she has removed them. You could candle those eggs that she has shoved out to see if the embryos are still alive. If they are, try putting them back under her - she may accept them. If she won't take them back, do not worry.

Sometimes ducks are just not good mothers, and they don't do it all by the rules. Sometimes they break eggs accidentally and sometimes they even eat the eggs. It's hard to say why - they just don't do mothering well. I would not start being concerned that your duck will do that though - I'm just mentioning to say that sometimes they do things we don't quite understand. Hopefully your girl is a good mother and has thrown them out for a good reason and she will keep sitting on the rest and bring out a good hatch.

Let us know how you go!

erner said:

Is it possible that she could tell that those ones might not have made it?

Click to expand...

I think this is most likely; nature is a wonderful thing and I read that ducks will discard eggs which are not viable.

yea usualy ducks can feel if the embryo has died so they kick out the dead eggs

We keep finding that our ducks are kicking out the older eggs in favor of the new ones. After putting back displaced eggs that were close to hatching several times, we're just putting them in the incubator. Anyway, don't assume that the eggs are dead because they are kicking them out. Ours seem to kick out only the most promising eggs. Two have been broody forever, but hatched nothing. We didn't get wise to it until we started to date the eggs. I thought we were putting the new eggs in the nest, but we were returning the old eggs to the nest.

I'd have to agree with Chookhead - ducks and hens know better than we do usually

We had one muscovy hen sat on 11 eggs in a little rabbit hutch and about a week to 10 days before hatch, we found one outside the hutch; from what I've read and heard from other more experienced people Muscovy ducks are extremely broody and are very capable of managing their young on their own, so booting one egg that is perhaps 'bad' would protect the rest, especially if it was rotting and exploded in the nest - they are now 7 weeks old and almost the size of mum!

We now have another Muscovy hen sat on another 12 eggs that are due to hatch this weekend coming, but she laid her nest next to one of our sheds under some wood leaning against the side of the shed, and rather than move her I've built a little corale around her with more scrap wood leant and balanced, and she seems fine, but we'll move her once her babies have hatched; now she booted out an egg about a week into nesting and it seemed to have no shell just a thick membrane around it.

How long do they sit before their eggs hatch?

Jeniep said:

How long do they sit before their eggs hatch?

Click to expand...

Mallard derived breeds 26-28 days, Muscovy 35days.

Have any of you had your DRAKE roll the eggs away? Our drake keeps rolling them out and blocking the hen from getting to them. She has only laid 3 so far so we don't expect her to be broody yet. But we're concerned why HE is rejecting the eggs.

Maybe he doesn't want to be a dad yet. The coop is too small and he doesn't have a steady source of water yet, or he wants to see more of the yard before settling down.

I think it's our human nature to want to save every egg or baby but the chicken or duck have something in them that is telling them not to keep some egg to term for some reason.