New to BYC and ready to ask some questions!

my4birds

In the Brooder
Mar 27, 2015
19
0
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My one year old Rouen ducks have just laid an egg! I am so happy and excited to try it out;)! I have a few questions though:
- How many eggs will they lay a week?
- will they sit on it when they are ready to have ducklings?
-what do I do to get them to start sitting on their eggs?
 
My one year old Rouen ducks have just laid an egg! I am so happy and excited to try it out;)! I have a few questions though:
- How many eggs will they lay a week?
- will they sit on it when they are ready to have ducklings?
-what do I do to get them to start sitting on their eggs?
Welcome to BYC. There are people here that are just waiting to assist you.

Now, Rouen ducks at a year of age can be expected to lay between 150 and 200 eggs a year so approximately every other day. They can and will go broody (want to sit a nest and hatch ducklings) but that will be totally up to them unless you are running a production environment and really understand flock management/husbandry issues. So, you probably can not get them to sit a nest. You will just have to allow Mother Nature to take control.

I am making the assumption that you have a drake somewhere in your flock. Without a drake there will be no fertilized eggs and no ducklings. So, if you can give further details of your flock (genders, numbers, age, etc.) people here will be more able to assist you.
 
Welcome to BYC. There are people here that are just waiting to assist you.

Now, Rouen ducks at a year of age can be expected to lay between 150 and 200 eggs a year so approximately every other day. They can and will go broody (want to sit a nest and hatch ducklings) but that will be totally up to them unless you are running a production environment and really understand flock management/husbandry issues. So, you probably can not get them to sit a nest. You will just have to allow Mother Nature to take control. 

I am making the assumption that you have a drake somewhere in your flock. Without a drake there will be no fertilized eggs and no ducklings. So, if you can give further details of your flock (genders, numbers, age, etc.) people here will be more able to assist you.

I have four ducks in total, two males and two females.
They are all about a year old.
They have a great own and house for them to sleep in at night which they love. I always change the hay for them so it's nice and comfy but I haven't seen any signs of a nest being built.
Everyday I go out there in the morning and they all waiting by the pen door and not sitting on the egg.
 
I have four ducks in total, two males and two females.
They are all about a year old.
They have a great own and house for them to sleep in at night which they love. I always change the hay for them so it's nice and comfy but I haven't seen any signs of a nest being built.
Everyday I go out there in the morning and they all waiting by the pen door and not sitting on the egg.
First your gender distribution may present a problem when they breed. The typical suggested ratio of male to female is one male for every 4-6 females minimum. Otherwise you may have serious fighting between the males for the females. Second, one male to one female will probably result in over mating of the female and can result in pretty serious injury and/or death of the female. If you can I would suggest that you get additional females to prevent some of these problems. If they are just a year old it may be early for them to mate and sit a nest. You will not get any fertilized eggs until the males are sexually mature which happens around or just after a year of age. Then it is going to depend on the breed. For instance, Khaki Campbells are not known to go broody as that trait was bred out of them in developing the breed. You could take the fertilized eggs and incubate them yourself.
 

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