:) Duck breeding and eggs

[VOX]

Long time no talk forum

. Pearl, Daisy and Shadow are doing great. Theres a new addition to the crew and her name is Maggie ( shes a magpie ) Anyways, my question is....when can male ducks fertilize the eggs? See the thing is Pearl has never sit on eggs before, she would always break them and eat them. About a week and a half ago she built a nest and is sitting and guarding 18 eggs....she is very very noisy and cranky when anyone or anything gets close to the their cage....and when i say noisy and cranky i mean like very bad...she get all puffed up and ill......iv never seen this before cuz i hatched pearl daisy and shadow from incubation and raised them...just wanting some knowledge about all this breeding stuff.....funny thing is shes sitting on hers and daisy's eggs. Just wondering if instinct is telling her they are fertile.

 

[desertdarlene]

Sounds like she's gone broody. Broodiness is usually hormonal, not necessarily because she knows the eggs are fertile. Have you seen her mating? If you have, they might be. She's defending her nest from you, but she doesn't hate you or anything. She's just following her instincts. She will sit on all eggs she sees unless Daisy takes some for her own to sit on. Not all ducks go broody, so Daisy may not even try to set. Also, Pearl may lose her broodiness before or after the eggs hatch, so you will want to keep an eye on them if you want ducklings.

You might want to take some of the eggs out, candle them, and throw the bad ones away. With 18 eggs, it's possible that she won't be able to correctly incubate all of them.