Many questions about duck eggs!

[karmlacres]

Last spring/early summer, I was given two ducklings (and 2 chicks, but they are a different story). They are cujuga (sp?) mix to the best of my knowledge. That was what I was told, anyways. They basically have the cujuga markings, but one has a white patch on it's chest. They are two different sizes. They seem to quack differently (I was told this is how to sex them - true or not, I'm not sure yet). I don't know how much the quack is linked to gender or breed.

Anyways, to my delight, I found a duck egg in the pen today! I know it's a duck egg because my hen consistantly lays brown eggs. Very excited about today's find! The duck has not been too happy about the hen peering in on the egg. Kind of funny if you ask me since the hen has been laying in the box nearly every day since the beginning of October.

So.... I'm thinking of letting the duck hatch the egg (eggs of she lays more) since she so far seems inclined to sit on it. The hen doesn't seem to inclined, but I also steal it from her daily and don't give her much of a chance. BUT there is the lingering question on the gender of the second duck. If it's another female, I certainly won't get any ducklings.

My basic questions are these....

How many eggs would a duck typically lay in her clutch (is it a clutch for a duck?)?

What is the incubation time of a duck egg? The chicken eggs are 21 days, so how do they compare? My thinking is allowing the duck to sit on some chicky eggs to see what happens. Also to see if one of these birds will hatch some eggs!

I was expecting the duck egg to be larger. It is the size of my hen's leg which is typically a tad larger than a store bought large egg .. until she drops me a double-yolker than it's a dinosaur sized egg!

Any enlightenment is appreciated!!!

 

[janastasio]

Congrats on your find! If your duck is broody she would most likely lay about 8-10 eggs to set. The likelyhood is that she has just simply begun to lay eggs. Some ducks lay them anywhere and others are more organized and will lay in the same place for awhile and change to a new location. Most ducks take 28 days to incubate, bantoms take 26 days and muscovies are 31 days (I think). Ducks are not always good about finishing the job of sitting. Sometimes they go in strong and then quit. Have you looked for male charachteristics on the other duck? Raspy sounds instead of a clear quack? Curly drake feather. In the mean time until you figure this out, I say eat em'! Duck eggs are great in baking! I love making duck egg cheesecakes!

 

[karmlacres]

Thanks for the info. I'll have to go see what a drake feather is

What in the world would we do without the internet!?!?!? Oh... go to the library

Except that does me no good on a Sunday!

Anyways, I have determined that the two quack differently. So there is some hope one is a drake.

As for baking... I love cheesecake! I had asked someone about duck eggs vs chicken eggs in baking and the response was "to use 1 duck egg for every 2 chicken eggs" because "the duck eggs were larger". In this case, my duck egg is no larger than the chicken egg.

 

[janastasio]

I use the same number duck eggs in the recipe that it calls for regular eggs. Mine are a little larger but it doesn't affect the recipe at all. Certainly sounds like you might have a male and female. Definitely google the drake feather. Just keep in mind that boys don't always have them present. They lose them when they molt and or if it gets pulled out like anyother feather.

 

[HamandLily]

It's Cayuga

Female cayugas grow white feathers to replace their beetle green/black ones - it's just a sign of getting older and all feamles do it

Male ducks have a very raspy quack, whereas females have he very loud, clear quack, and the curly feather and lack of white featers should tell you the difference! Also, males tend to be larger!

The eggs should hatch after 28 days or so as far as I know. If you are going to let her hatch them, it might be worth seeing if you can candle them to see if there is anything growing about 10-13 days in.

I'm not 100% sure on what size a cayuga egg should be, but it depends on the bird as well as the breed - when I had two Khakis, one was a lot smaller than the other, and that was reflected in the eggs!

I hope you do get some babies - I adore Cayugas!

 

[karmlacres]

Thanks for the info and the correct spelling - I can never remember it right! When looking to see if my hen laid in an alternate location, I found another duck egg. I suspect it was laid yesterday since I found the duck sitting on the egg in the nesting box today - I was thinking the one in the box was her latest one and she was sitting on it. Who knows. These birds speak a foreign language! LOL

Well, this female has always had some white spots on her neck - I was told they were crosses, but with "what" was always questionable. I gave a lady a door and she gave me two ducklings and two chicks. She had a mix of everything on her farm. The kids have loved having the birds and learning about them. All the birds are coming up on being a year old. I'll be watching that white area to see if she gets more. Will need to look at some older photos to see if the amount of white has changed any.

The male is considerably larger than the female (in hindsight, I recall the male mounting the female a few months back before we took the pool out of the pen for the winter). She was swimming and he had a hold of the back of her head. At the time I wondered about it all.

Thanks for the candling info - I'll put it on my calendar to check them. If the hen starts laying again, I may leave a chicken egg or two in there to see if the duck will hatch them.

The eggs are so pretty! They'll look pretty next to the hen's brown eggs

 

[HamandLily]

If your duck lays eggs all over the place, gather them up and put them all where she is nesting so she can learn where to lay!

I just wanted to quickly mention about duck male to female ratio - during spring time, drakes get really aggressive and continuously mate with females, so the suggested ratio of males to females is 1:3. I don't know if you're aable to get any more ducks but I have seen some ducks that are bald and red raw on the back of their necks because they are being continuously mated with because the males' hormone levels go crazy in spring!

And you're welcome - keep us updated - and I'd love to see some pictures if you do get babies

Could you post a picture of your two, I'd like to see if I can work out what they're crossed with!

 

[karmlacres]

Hmmm, not sure I can get more ducks. I'll definitely keep an eye on her and separate them if I need to. Right now, he seems to be sticking close to her. In the past, the 4 birds mind their own business when in the pen. Now the drake seems to be very protective(?) of the female duck. I've been in and out of the pen (for food, water and relocating the one egg) and he hasn't been aggressive towards me at all. The ducks have always seemed tolerant of me - they know I'm the bearer of food! Today she was snoozing in a corner of the pen but I would expect her to move back to the garbage can home or the nesting box as colder weather is due to come in. Today and the last few days have been very nice and in the mid 50s, so the birds have been out and about more in their pen to enjoy the sunshine.

I may have some pics of the ducks on the computer in the basement - I need to go down there anyways once the kiddos are in bed. If I don't have any, I'll try to get some pics tomorrow.

 

[HamandLily]

If you do have to separate them, make sure they can see each other and talk to each other because ducks can't really be by themseleves!

Yeah the protectiveness does come around springtime - maybe he is just very smitten haha!

I'm not sure if Cayugas are a good brood - I've heard that they are quite good but never seen it in practice - if you do want to hatch them, you might want to purchase an incubator!

 

[karmlacres]

I did not know that about them not being able to be by themselves! So glad the woman gave me 2 ducklings - originally she was going to give me one. I really didn't *need* a duck but thought the girls would think it would be cool to have one for as long as it lasted (my dad caught two ducklings when we were kids and they didn't live long - Pumpkin Head and Blueberry Muffin haha). I started asking questions about raising ducks and then she sent me 2.

I do have an incubator and am getting ready to set some chicken eggs later in the week. I can't incubate ducks and chicks at the same time, can I? Don't they have different requirements?