Crazy Duck Stealing Eggs For Her Nest!

[Baylor]

I have a 6mn old Swedish who decided to start nesting the past 3 weeks. Now for the the 1st week she would sit the nest just not non stop. For the past two weeks she has been sitting it all the time (occasionally gets off - she prefers when I bring her water and food

). So I went to check her nest today because I suspected she keeps stealing the eggs of my 5 mn old that is laying eggs in a nesting box next to her. I see the new eggs in the morning and by night they are gone

. So I moved her from the nest and counted 31 eggs under her. Last time I counted there were 24 so clearly she must be stealing them from the other female. I went and candled them because I wanted to see where they were in development and suspected some must be bad. Sure enough there were 5 soupy / dead ones and the rest are literally from 3-5 days development (beginning veining to 2-3 weeks development).

Am I to assume she will abandon the eggs once some start hatching? I have several new babies that I ordered to bring some quality into the ducks for possible showing in local events for my little boys so her eggs/babies will not be assisted it will all be natural selection - or so I am trying to convince myself of that idea.

Is it normal to have that varying stages of development or is she just so young she doesnt know what she is doing. I was shocked to see her sitting the nest to begin with - I just wanted her eggs to be in the same place everyday and not have to hunt for them so I got her a nesting box.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Baylor, hi there! What became of your thief? I have a Pekin who appears to be stealing as well!!

 

[NovaAman]

Yeah, what happened? I don't know about ducks... Lol, had a few and only one went broody, but no boys, so, I broke that... Lol...

 

[Baylor]

She unfortunately created a second nest of eggs burying her original nest under hay and those babies all died (I had no idea what she had done as I didnt kick her off the nest) She ended up giving up and nothing hatched. She just recently tried again to sit a nest and I dont think she turned the eggs as they all started to develop but all in the end of 2nd or 3rd week stopped developing. She is now just being a normal duck again. I really want to see her be successful one of these days.

 

[JumpingDucks]

I had a pair of broody anconas last summer that kept stealing chicken eggs - naughty girls! It was the funniest thing. The way they were hiding I could only see one of them and thought I had lost the other but then I kept seeing her. That went on for about a week before I figured out they were both in the same box. Those black and white spots really blended.

The really sad thing is they were so close to finally having at least a couple hatch when a nasty rat snake literally ate the eggs out from under them. I had to separate the girls for 2 weeks to break the broody. It took another month to get them back to laying. I basically lost 8 weeks of eggs and had nothing to show for it.

 

[keyt1969]

I can't get a duck to sit on eggs to save their lives! lol

NOVA??? What are you doing here??? lol

 

[animalz11]

One of my girls is broody at the moment. The only time she will get off the nest is in the arvo, and she is so nasty to the other ducks except one. She will latch onto them with her beak while they are yelling out. Poor things. Must be her time of the year (as opposed to our time of the month).

Anyways, the 2 muscovies have been laying in the same nest ever since, well, ever since they started laying, and the duck that is not broody doesn't seem to care for her eggs, she used to sit on them, but now she just lays an egg a night in the nest, then gets off the nest and sleeps with the other 3 ducks (which are only 2 months old). Ms Broody has 4 eggs at the moment, 2 of her own and 2 of the other ducks (Ms Broody's eggs are a darker colour them Daffy's).

So, this might be the case with your ducks, the "egg stealer" could have just taken over the job of the other one and given her self too much to deal with, so by taking all the eggs, the other one doesn't see any point in sitting if her eggs are gone all the time.

 

[Baylor]

Ducks are certainly complicated they are starting to build up their egg count in another nest up to 9 already so lets see who sits it if at all!

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

not all domestics make good broody moms. If they get two clutches and fail at both its best to keep all eggs away so she isnt sitting eggs she could abandon or wont care for.