Broody duck but eggs feel cold?

[uusparrowuu]

Welsh harlequin duck has been sitting on and defending her nest for the past week. I checked on the eggs and the mama today, and she was sitting on them, but they did not feel warm. Every once in a while I’ll peek into the duck house during the day, when it’s just her in there, and sometimes it looks like she’s half on/half off the eggs.

This is her first brood, should I be concerned?

She doesn’t seem to mind that half of the eggs aren’t even hers. She steals the other eggs. Will she stop stealing eggs once she has too many? If not, at how many should I stop her?

 

[Pollo Blanco]

Welsh harlequin duck has been sitting on and defending her nest for the past week. I checked on the eggs and the mama today, and she was sitting on them, but they did not feel warm. Every once in a while I’ll peek into the duck house during the day, when it’s just her in there, and sometimes it looks like she’s half on/half off the eggs.

This is her first brood, should I be concerned?

She doesn’t seem to mind that half of the eggs aren’t even hers. She steals the other eggs. Will she stop stealing eggs once she has too many? If not, at how many should I stop her?

I'm going to guess that once she gets her 'brood' together, she'll do a three day dedication to get them started.
Have you considered picking up an inexpensive hand-held non contact thermometer?

 

[uusparrowuu]

I'm going to guess that once she gets her 'brood' together, she'll do a three day dedication to get them started.
Have you considered picking up an inexpensive hand-held non contact thermometer?

I have one. What temperature should they be at this point, ‘un-brooded’?

 

[Pollo Blanco]

I have one. What temperature should they be at this point, ‘un-brooded’?

Not really sure, but I don't think that they'll start growing unless they hold around 99 degrees for a couple of days. Our holiday keeper put six eggs on a shelf in the coop that can reach 120 in the sun, and at least five of them were starters.
The eggs in my incubator 'gun out' around 94, the unit says that it's around 100 inside and the thermal probe in the incubator reads about 98 when I gun it. I have a Raytech unit and they're supposed to be accurate within a fraction of a degree. The color of what you're measuring will influence the reading, with black being the most accurate. The thermal probe in the incubator is black.