Are Ducks Supposed to set on their eggs?????

[bizzeeb60]

Hey there everyone. I am VERY new with the duck thing so I could use some help. When my neighbor passed away a few month ago, her son & daughter -in-law donated their ducks to us since we have a 1/3 acre pond on our property. So we now have 1 Drake and 2 hen mallards. The hens have started laying eggs under a blue plumbago bush next to the house. They have been laying 2 per day ( I am assuming one from each hen) anyhow, they seem to lay them at night but I never see either of them "setting" on them. There are now 16 eggs in this pile. I have never touched them, they are easily visible from the front porch (my house sits about 5' above the ground) so all we have to do is walk out onto the porch and glance down @ the nest. They had previously layed six or eight by the large oak tree in the front yard but I think the raccoons got into them, so they started laying them close to the house. That is another question, is there a way to move the 2 that are left from that area in with the new ones or can I pretty much write them off as a meal? I can really use some help on this issue. Thanks so very much

 

[gryeyes]

Most domesticated ducks are not very broody at all.

 

[bizzeeb60]

So will the eggs hatch eventually?

 

[Duck_feeder]

Quote:
Sounds like they haven't gone broody yet and are still laying eggs to build up their nest. I'm not familiar with how brood mallards get compared to other ducks but if they do go broody and sit on the eggs for the full 28 days, some of the eggs should hatch (assuming the drake did his job of course).

Fertile eggs remain viable for upwards of two weeks if the temperature isn't too extreme. They purposely don't sit on the eggs to incubate them until they are done laying so all the ducklings will hatch around the same time (Imagine how annoying it'd be for a duck mama to have a new duckling hatch everyday for a couple weeks.

)

On an unrelated note, do you have a predator-proof home for your ducks? Those raccoons might try making a meal of them one of these days...

 

[bizzeeb60]

The geese have taught the ducks to stay close to the pond @ night, that way they can jump in if a predator comes through. Since the pond is almost 30 feet deep at the deepest end, most everything stays out of it. So far that works. The Coyotes got in one night ( before we got rid of the barb wire and finished the field fence) and the goose spent every night for about 4 days in the pond, and slept during the day.