Mysteriously Disappearing Eggs + No Hatches

darrn said:

I have a lazy female duck. She's laying her eggs where a silkie is brooding. She has 3 of her eggs there right now. My question is will the silkie be ok with these, or should I move them to the incubator? Silkie has 4 of her eggs or her sister's under her with the duck eggs.

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darrn said:

Any hints on keeping water out for ducks and chicks without the ducks playing in it? I have to change the bedding in the broader twice a day because of them.

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biddyboo8 said:

Hey all! So in early June our Pekin duck Cheese was broody.We had wanted ducklings then so we decided, why not have Cheese hatch some? So she started out with 12 eggs, and we took two to try to hatch ourselves but they died before they got veins. So with ten eggs, Cheese started her clutch.

The problem is, every few days an egg will disappear, nowhere to be found. To this day, she only has 6 eggs. I am truly worried because we candled ALL the eggs and they're all alive, but she must be throwing out good ducklings or something is stealing them. There is absolutely no trace that the eggs when anywhere. It's like they never existed! I know there were fully developed fetuses in all four eggs that disappeared, as they're going to hatch literally any minute now. They're full with a huge airsac. They were estimated to hatch on the 8th, but nope. Why are her eggs seemingly disappearing?

So besides Cheese murdering her babies, I have another question. Since our eggs should hatch literally any second, there is no pipping. No internal pipping, either. We also constantly check for peeping eggs but they just won't peep. Is there a possibility our date was wrong, and they should hatch later? Maybe the fetuses died in an extremely developed stage? I'm really confused as this is my first time hatching any eggs ever. So does anyone have ideas? Thanks in advance!

(Also if this is in the wrong section or breaking the rules, sorry! This is my first post.)

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