she has laid her first eggs, now what?

[bantymum]

Hi all,
My white bantam duck has laid her first eggs, however it is still winter and spring starts on 1/9!
She has laid 8 ~yippee!!!!
She has them buried in straw nest and I have made a natural "hide" around the area using leafy branch cuttings so the crows dont snatch them.
Will she sit on the eggs when it suits her like chickens do???
sorry for my silly question, or will they hatch without incubation, another dumb question!
Any advice will be greatly received!!!

 

[Chickenlover88]

Sounds like she will definatly go broody. Usually they only hide them if they plan on sitting on them. Mine usually waited till they laid 6-12 eggs before they sat full time. And there really isn't anything worse than a broody duck. lol I would get bruises and they would sometimes even break the skin if I tried to look at their eggs. Good luck!

 

[bantymum]

Ok wow, thanks! so she will sit on them?
i bought the pair for $80 last autumn when they were young so this is the first time for all of us!
So she will get cranky, thats ok, the 2 ducks are fenced off from the chooks in their own big yard so they cant get me!!!
i have made them a pond which looks really natural with gentle sloping shoreline which will make it easy for the ducklings to get in and out safely!
How long do they take to hatch?

 

[bantymum]

I forgot to ask: should I start building an enclosure to protect the little ones from crows or will the parents protect them?

 

[FrankBlissett]

If it gets very cold in your area in winter, it will dramaticly decrease the fertility of the eggs. If that's the case, personally, I'd move the eggs over to the frying pan. (MMM - just thinking of those big, rich yolks almost makes me drool!) If your winters are mild though, it wouldn't be a problem - by the time she gets a good number of eggs, then sets for 4 weeks, spring will be upon you just in time for the babies. However, as I said, if you're having cold weather and the duck needs to get up to eat etc, some of the eggs may die.

Btw, from what I've noticed, ducks do tend to wait till there's a large number of eggs before going broody. Ours hatched out 15 this (northern) spring.

-Frank