Broody moving her eggs into water bowl after 21 days.

[Irishsilk]

Our Mama Karki Campbell is sitting on 10 eggs.
On Saturday (1 week before the 28 days) there was an egg in her water bowl, and again one was in there on Sunday.
The water container is a washing up bowl, and about 12 foot away from her nesting box.

Hubby said the second one had broken shell, but the membrane was intact.

Any ideas why she is doing this??

Could she tell there was something wrong with the baby?
Why would she carry the egg over to the water bowl?
She is in a small box, which is in the corner of a large stable....is she concerned that there isn't enough room in the box for all the eggs to hatch?
Why one egg each day?

Any ideas please???

 

[Orca5094]

Is this happening overnight? I would suspect another animal is doing it (rat maybe?) rather than the hen, but hard to know for sure. That is extremely odd behavior for a duck. You said one egg was cracked, but was the other one fully intact? Ducks will sometimes eat their eggs if they get broken and they see there is yummy yolk in there, and we all know how much ducks like to stick everything in their water. So it COULD be her (or another duck). Still pretty odd, though.

 

[Irishsilk]

Thanks for your thoughts.
I wonder tho, why would a rat take the egg over to the water bowl and leave it in there....wouldn't a rat take it away and eat it?
Hubby says the first egg was broken and empty... Just broken shell.
The second egg had broken shell, membrane intact with a duckling inside.. I wish we weren't so squeamish and were able to do an autopsy. But that isn't going to happen....

The eggs were in the water in the morning.
I can't imagine anything being able to get into the nest as mama is Very fierce!

Can a mama duck tell that something is wrong with the development before hatching.... So discards the egg?
Or could it be that she thought the eggs are too dry and needed water????
We not had ducks hatch before so it's all a huge learning curve for us.
Horrid to have to learn by our mistakes.....

 

[Irishsilk]

So...there was another broken egg in the water bowl on day 26. In fact the shell was in both water bowls....no duckling, but water was stinky and cloudy, so presumably a rotten egg.
When Mama left the nest in the evening to have her wash outside the stable I had a quick look at the nest. There were originally 10 eggs, now there is 7. So she had only removed the 3, and they were all put in the water bowl.
The nest stank awful.....!! So I presumed all the eggs were rotten

Well today is day 28.... And there's lots of peeping coming from the nest!!!!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

So...there was another broken egg in the water bowl on day 26. In fact the shell was in both water bowls....no duckling, but water was stinky and cloudy, so presumably a rotten egg.
When Mama left the nest in the evening to have her wash outside the stable I had a quick look at the nest. There were originally 10 eggs, now there is 7. So she had only removed the 3, and they were all put in the water bowl.
The nest stank awful.....!! So I presumed all the eggs were rotten

Well today is day 28.... And there's lots of peeping coming from the nest!!!!!

Of course pics when you can!!

 

[Orca5094]

Ok, then maybe she was just trying to remove the bad/dead ones from her nest and decided the water bowl was the best place to put them? Great to hear that some are still good and preparing to hatch! Keep us updated!

 

[Lauranjbo]

This is exactly what is going on with my muscovy duck! The first one was definitely rotten and last night the egg was all cracked up and put in water bowl. She is the only duck in this duck house and nothing else could be moving these eggs. I can't figure out how she is lifting the eggs and dropping them in water container.

 

[sunlotus]

I just observed my duck running very quickly from the garden to her swimming pool with her egg in her mouth and deposited it into the pool!!! Then she drank and moved it around a bit...then returned to garden...i was hoping to find the answer here...so weird!!

 

[chickens really]

Young Hen?
I will assume ...lol....She was hiding it in her favourite spot...Soon she won't do those things...

 

[LaloLikesDucks]

My Welsh Harlequin has been doing the same. It's her second time nesting - the first time when she could sense an egg was no good she simply pushed it out of the nest.

But this time every bad egg she has dropped in a water bowl. All have been broken and I've only found one with a formed duckling inside. I don't have an answer to why, but it's nice to know she's not the only one.