muscovy duck

[ruthhope]

Thanks for protecting Oreo Jr while she is vulnerable on her nest

 

[newbie ducks]

You're in Florida right? We have a lot of feral muscovies here and they sometimes will nest in the winter, although it's not the ideal time of year.

I think it's really sweet how you're making her selected nesting spot comfortable

As ruthhope said, it's only when she's done laying a full clutch of eggs that she'll need to stay on them full-time. When she does that and heats them up, that's when they'll start developing into ducklings.

The reason they don't lay on them until they're done laying all their eggs is because they need all the eggs to hatch at the same time.

Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to lay on eggs and take care of various ages of babies all at once. When the eggs hatch, the ducklings will stay with and follow their mom around. They rely on her to safely bring them to places with food, water, shelter, and keep them warm and protected.

It's different with e.g. parrots, where they have babies hatching on different days and therefore are all developing at different rates. Because parrot babies (and most other bird species) stay in the nest and mom (and/or dad) directly feed them.

yes I'm in north florida jax area. oreo was back this morning she dropped 1 egg now she got 2, but I don't think the 1st one might make it being she didn't cover it up or stay to sit on it got cold last night down to 45 & It will get cold again tonight going down to 50 and she left again she shows up the next morning and drops an egg then leaves until the next morning. her sister cookie dough did that for a while then she would drop even more eggs until she was ready to stay to sit on them. Her sister cookie dough dropped 22 eggs & Then when 8 babies hatched she took them over to the pond & they are all doing good over there. I think she a new mom because when her sister cookie dough was here she would cover them up when it got colder outside. I wrote numbers on them I can keep track of them. I gave her more bedding this morning covered them up some. later today when the sun comes around to her spot it help warm them up a bit more. hopefully she figure things out. Don't want to sound mean, but they are wild ducks they do their own thing their way & I live in HOA. I really don't want to have to get an incubator & make a chicken/duck coop out in my back yard, but not unless I absolutely need to do so. after all they are wild Muscovy's best to let them be.