Hi guys.
A little story of everything that happened, so you can understand my question better.
I have 2 female Saxony ducks and 1 male who are 1 year old. They started laying in spring and 1 month ago (end of June) I noticed one of the females going broody. I stopped collecting the eggs since she was taking the eggs from the other one and her own and trying to sit on them. She only had 4 when she sat down so I tried putting the eggs I collected a couple of days before under her since I was going to put then into the incubator but figured if she's going to sit, it's better then I don't have to take care of them. Her nest is on the floor and when she went to eat and drink I snuck "my" eggs into her nest. When she came back she rolled a bunch of eggs out of the nest and sat on the others. I took the ones she rolled out back to put into the incubator since I wanted to see if she somehow knew they were infertile. The next day she was walking around as if she had no nest so I took all the eggs away, since we also have 4 chickens in the run and I was worried about the chickens eating the eggs. Well, she laid some more eggs and I just left them and then she sat down on 4 eggs and she stole 2 from the chicken. So 4 duck eggs and 2 chicken eggs. They were supposed to hatch around July 25 since I put my eggs into the Incubator around the same time she sat down. Then 3 weeks into incubating one of the chickens decided to go broody. She tried to take over the duck's nest. At first they both sat right beside each other, whenever 1 would get off the other one would try rolling the eggs over into her nest, but they weren't fast enough to steal all of them I guess, before the other one got back. Now a couple of days ago I noticed that the duck wasn't sitting on her eggs anymore, it seemed that the chicken completly took over. I wasn't sure how many duck eggs were under the chicken since it seemed to me that though out all of this the duck eggs in the nest were getting less. Then yesterday (July 25) I checked since the duck eggs were supposed to start hatching and when I got there I saw that a duckling hatched. Or at least I think it did, because I saw the shell and it looked exactly the same as when my ducklings in the incubator hatch, the inside was even still wet. But no duckling. I looked all over but couldn't find it Then my husband lifted up the chicken and there are only chicken eggs under her. So my question is: what do you think happened to the duckling? And where did the other duck eggs go? Is it possible that the chickens or ducks ate the baby duckling? Some more facts that might help:
In the run we have 14 Pekin ducklings (3 months old) the 3 Saxony ducks, 2 Cayuga ducks (2 months) and 4 chickens. The ducks either finished molting or are in the middle of it, I'm not sure if the Perkins are also molting but the Saxony drake definitely is, so I'm assuming that the females are as well, the run and all around it is so full of feathers it looks like it snowed. I don't think there has been a predator coming around, haven't seen anything at least.
A little story of everything that happened, so you can understand my question better.
I have 2 female Saxony ducks and 1 male who are 1 year old. They started laying in spring and 1 month ago (end of June) I noticed one of the females going broody. I stopped collecting the eggs since she was taking the eggs from the other one and her own and trying to sit on them. She only had 4 when she sat down so I tried putting the eggs I collected a couple of days before under her since I was going to put then into the incubator but figured if she's going to sit, it's better then I don't have to take care of them. Her nest is on the floor and when she went to eat and drink I snuck "my" eggs into her nest. When she came back she rolled a bunch of eggs out of the nest and sat on the others. I took the ones she rolled out back to put into the incubator since I wanted to see if she somehow knew they were infertile. The next day she was walking around as if she had no nest so I took all the eggs away, since we also have 4 chickens in the run and I was worried about the chickens eating the eggs. Well, she laid some more eggs and I just left them and then she sat down on 4 eggs and she stole 2 from the chicken. So 4 duck eggs and 2 chicken eggs. They were supposed to hatch around July 25 since I put my eggs into the Incubator around the same time she sat down. Then 3 weeks into incubating one of the chickens decided to go broody. She tried to take over the duck's nest. At first they both sat right beside each other, whenever 1 would get off the other one would try rolling the eggs over into her nest, but they weren't fast enough to steal all of them I guess, before the other one got back. Now a couple of days ago I noticed that the duck wasn't sitting on her eggs anymore, it seemed that the chicken completly took over. I wasn't sure how many duck eggs were under the chicken since it seemed to me that though out all of this the duck eggs in the nest were getting less. Then yesterday (July 25) I checked since the duck eggs were supposed to start hatching and when I got there I saw that a duckling hatched. Or at least I think it did, because I saw the shell and it looked exactly the same as when my ducklings in the incubator hatch, the inside was even still wet. But no duckling. I looked all over but couldn't find it Then my husband lifted up the chicken and there are only chicken eggs under her. So my question is: what do you think happened to the duckling? And where did the other duck eggs go? Is it possible that the chickens or ducks ate the baby duckling? Some more facts that might help:
In the run we have 14 Pekin ducklings (3 months old) the 3 Saxony ducks, 2 Cayuga ducks (2 months) and 4 chickens. The ducks either finished molting or are in the middle of it, I'm not sure if the Perkins are also molting but the Saxony drake definitely is, so I'm assuming that the females are as well, the run and all around it is so full of feathers it looks like it snowed. I don't think there has been a predator coming around, haven't seen anything at least.
