Broody duck or not?

[Szack]

My Aylesbury has been laying her eggs in a new nest box I've put in as she kept laying eggs on the floor all around the paddock. She has been laying daily for 6 days straight and has now stopped with the eggs for the past 2 days! She waits until im out of sight and creeps into the box to lay and then hides them in the straw. Ive been checking the eggs every night after she is in bed with the rest of my ducks. Is this a sign she is about to sit on them or has she got spooked and abandoned the clutch? Should i remove them and try them in the incubator myself or should i wait? If so for how long? The first egg she laid in thew box is. now 9 days old. This is her fist year of this behaviour. She is only a year old.

 

[Soos-Quacken]

I went through this same headache myself with my runner, if it's really weighing on your mind you could try what we did. We let our girl keep half her clutch and took the other half and incubated them (it was sorta an experiment). I know with my runner we could reach underneath her and she'd do the whole irate mother routine but wouldn't abandon her eggs. If she hasn't started to sit on them it means she may still be building up to going broody, those eggs can sit for a good little while without losing their fertility. If it's really bugging you though, you could do what we did and take half

 

[Szack]

I went through this same headache myself with my runner, if it's really weighing on your mind you could try what we did. We let our girl keep half her clutch and took the other half and incubated them (it was sorta an experiment). I know with my runner we could reach underneath her and she'd do the whole irate mother routine but wouldn't abandon her eggs. If she hasn't started to sit on them it means she may still be building up to going broody, those eggs can sit for a good little while without losing their fertility. If it's really bugging you though, you could do what we did and take half

Thats a good idea...ill wait a few more days and see how she goes and then got for half her eggs in the incubator. Thanks