She's sitting on 18 eggs!!

[crazyh717]

My Rouen or mallard not sure anymore, I was told Rouen tho. She has finally begun to sit either last night or this morning.
The egg count was 18 eggs! Now the new count down is 28 days I do believe. I'm happy for her!
Her mate won't go anywhere where he cannot see her and our whole front yard has become theirs lol.
He won't let anyone walk around, he gets his head down and chases people even the dog. (Yes our dog is super friendly with them, so no worries there.
But she moved her nest by the kids swing next to the fence. Hidden in the tall grass.
She blends in with her surroundings quite well.

I had to change the brightness so she could be seen,

And her mate patrolling the area.

Update at the very bottom. You can read the story if you want and provide any additional comments.

 

[SmallFarmUSA]

So cute! I had my Welsh Harlequin hatch 17/17 eggs this past spring, cutest sight ever! Hopefully the hatch goes well!

 

[crazyh717]

So cute! I had my Welsh Harlequin hatch 17/17 eggs this past spring, cutest sight ever! Hopefully the hatch goes well!

I hope so as well, I'm happy she is sitting but is it normally for her to get up for about 30 minutes.
She has twice so far.
I am thinking of putting a fence around her so the dog won't upset her. Even tho our dog doesn't actually bug her but goes too near her

 

[SmallFarmUSA]

Yes, it can be normal for them to leave that long. How many times a day does she leave the nest?

 

[The Duck Ladie]

Congratulations!

 

[crazyh717]

Yes, it can be normal for them to leave that long. How many times a day does she leave the nest?

Sorry it took so long for me to reply, but I was kind busy yesterday but she gets up probably 4 or five times a day, mainly the morning and when my kids get home from school. Around the time I feed them. It would be day two because the first day my husband scared her off so she didn't sit at night. He built a shelter to help keep the rain and sun off of her. But yesterday and today she has been up and down, not for as long anymore, but still up and down.

 

[SmallFarmUSA]

Alright, sounds good; the longer she sits the less she'll probably tend to get off the nest. Hopefully she'll turn out to be a great mother!!

 

[crazyh717]

She's back to not sitting again. So I'm not sure what's going on now.

 

[quackers and me]

Wow! 18 eggs. That is a lot. My Indian runner (Knotty) just hatched 9 eggs over the last 2 days. She started out setting on 13 then slowly but surely weeded out the eggs that weren't going to hatch. I think it is wonderful that mother nature gives them the ability to know which eggs to keep and which to get rid of. My Pekin (Prissy) did the same thing. She started out with 3 but discarded one along the way and hatched 2. Congratulations. You are going to be so thrilled when they hatch.

 

[crazyh717]

Wow! 18 eggs. That is a lot. My Indian runner (Knotty) just hatched 9 eggs over the last 2 days. She started out setting on 13 then slowly but surely weeded out the eggs that weren't going to hatch. I think it is wonderful that mother nature gives them the ability to know which eggs to keep and which to get rid of. My Pekin (Prissy) did the same thing. She started out with 3 but discarded one along the way and hatched 2. Congratulations. You are going to be so thrilled when they hatch.

Well there were 18 eggs and I guess she wasn't done laying went out checking to see if. She had started sitting again and found out there is now 20 eggs.

With one stuck in the fence lol.