Big Fat Female Pekin

[DucklingLovee]

So my female Pekin finally just started to lay, she's about a year old. I have a male Runner and he's tried to mate with her a few times but the problem is she's twice the size of him and he's having some trouble lol. I've seen him try to mount her and then he kinda just sits on her back and doesn't seem like he knows what to do. So this might be an idiotic question but, do you guys think I'll have any fertile eggs? I'm a very novice duck mommy and I pretty much have questions about everything, so I'm sorry if I sound stupid lol. I've been incubating a few of them and am going to candle them in a few days, so I'm just curious to see if it's even worth it.

 

[buff goose guy]

you could have eggs fertile eggs if they breed in water (like about 4 ft deep) that water the male can position himself better on the female.

 

[DucklingLovee]

They have a kiddie pool, that's about the only place I've seen him try but it's definitely not four feet deep. I'm going to get a bigger one for them soon so maybe that will help.

 

[sourland]

I agree with buff goose guy - provide a pool with water, as much as a foot deep will facilitate breeding with ducks. More depth would be required for geese. If he manages to 'connect' even once on land or in the water, that should provide fertility for a minimum of 2 weeks. You can open an egg and check for the bulls eye appearance of a fertile egg. Do an on site search for 'bulls eye fertility' and threads will show indicating the appearance of fertile eggs.

 

[DucklingLovee]

Okay, thank you guys! What would I do without this site lol.

 

[Amykins]

Some runners don't like deep water, so be prepared for the plan to fail. But I hope it doesn't! Is the runner young? I think it takes a while for them to figure things out. Wobbles is in the throes of his very first mating season and even though I'm his only "mate" so far sometimes he just plain sucks at it. He'll grab and twist, but just sits there and doesn't do anything! Hehe poor guy probably doesn't know what he's supposed to do!

As for fertility, you can check by cracking open one of her eggs. If you see a small white bulls-eye on the yolk, there's your sign!

 

[DucklingLovee]

I have no idea how old he is, we rescued him when his owners dumped him at a local lake in the middle of our very cold winter. I think he is just inexperienced though, hopefully he'll gt the hang of it!

 

[needlessjunk]

My drake is still figuring things out so it can take a while too. He has it down with his buddy that came with him but it's an epic fail with my other girls.

 

[DucklingLovee]

Haha awe! Poor boys. It's so difficult. I opened one of the eggs and saw a white circle on the yolk, not sure if it was quite the bullseye shape though. I'll just candle the one's she laid first in a few days and see. I've hatched eggs before so at least I know how to do that lol!

 

[DucklingLovee]

Definitely got a bullseye today! woohoo!