13 days & no broody duck

[CarolynD13]

Hi y'all I am a newbie to raising ducks and chickens. I have two Mallard ducks and one drake. They have been very active mating for the past month and just started laying 13 days ago. They are not broody and now I am concerned that this clutch of eggs will be a waste. The ducks chose a doggie igloo to nest in. They are young also, about six months old. I would like to hatch some eggs. I did not mark the eggs from the beginning; can I try to incubate some or give up?

Any help is greatly appreciated!
Carolyn

 

[Mrs.H]

You can't make a duck go broody. You could incubate but I would start with new eggs

 

[Orca5094]

I would also start with new eggs if you intend to incubate. It's not really best to incubate a hen's very first eggs ever. It's always good to let them lay for awhile before incubating just so they can work all the kinks out in their reproductive tract.

If you want to see if they will go broody, you could mark all the eggs they have laid so far and leave them for now. Don't mark the new ones so if they DON'T go broody in the next week or so, you can just pick the unmarked ones to incubate yourself. Hope that made sense. Good luck!