Duck laying on peafowl eggs

[SolarDuck]

Hello, for the past couple days my duck named Penguin has been broody and laying on some fertile peafowl eggs. I'll use this thread just to keep updated with what is happening.

Basically how it started is my mom's house has dozens of feral peafowl running around, and we found a nest with all of the eggs except 2 destroyed. Some predator must have found them. Since there were still 2 eggs, I grabbed them and brought them home to my broody duck so she could lay on them. I also put down 8 non fertile duck eggs with the peafowl eggs to get her to lay on them. I am not really sure if the eggs are alive or not.

I have a few questions about this.

1. How long can I keep the infertile duck eggs under her before they go bad? If I take them from her will she stop laying on the peafowl eggs?

2. If she does manage to incubate them until they hatch, will she accept them? Or will she reject them because they are not ducks.

2 of my ducks are both broody and switching off the eggs so there is always at least one of of laying on them.
Also if they do end up hatching, I definitely am not allowed to have peafowl in my neighborhood so if they do hatch i will have to find a good home for them.

I'll keep you guys updated, I am excited and curious to see how this plays out.

 

[nuthatched]

I'd candle them tomorrow to check for life. I wouldn't add any eggs the peafowl clutch, I don't know how long it would take to go bad but sometimes birds sense there's something wrong the eggs, she may scoot them out or leave the nest entirely.

 

[casportpony]

If she does manage to incubate them until they hatch, will she accept them? Or will she reject them because they are not ducks.

I don't know that she'll reject them, but you should remove them and raise the in a brooder.

 

[SolarDuck]

I'd candle them tomorrow to check for life. I wouldn't add any eggs the peafowl clutch, I don't know how long it would take to go bad but sometimes birds sense there's something wrong the eggs, she may scoot them out or leave the nest entirely.

Do you think i should remove the duck eggs then? The reason I added them were because at first with just the 2 peafowl eggs the ducks did not want to sit on them, but once I added more eggs they thought it was enough to lay on.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Do you think i should remove the duck eggs then? The reason I added them were because at first with just the 2 peafowl eggs the ducks did not want to sit on them, but once I added more eggs they thought it was enough to lay on.

How long has she been sitting on the clutch of eggs?

 

[DukesDucks]

This is my second year successfully having my broody Muscovy ducks sit on peacock eggs. Last year the ducks killed the first 2 that hatched so I changed my system. It is very low tech but works for me.
This year I had 3 ducks sitting on seven eggs. As soon as I see a pip that has cracked the shell, I remove the egg. It is then moved to my oven in a pan placed right by the oven lamp. This has provided sufficient heat. I add a large container of hot water for humidity, and keep the eggs misted with warm water.
I set my timer for 60 - 90 minutes to check progress. I find the peachicks need more help that might be advisable but the first one died in the egg before finishing hatching. It seems like they just give up. So every hour I provide help by using tweezers to very carefully chip off more shell and open the membrane. Once they are fully hatched and dried, I move them to a brooder which is a cardboard box with a heat lamp hanging between 2 ladders in my spare room.
I always think of my grandmother having piglets in a box beside the wood stove.
These 4 are 2 days old and 1 day old.

 

[SolarDuck]

How long has she been sitting on the clutch of eggs?

just about 4 days

 

[SolarDuck]

Here is the peafowl eggs being candled, both of them look the same. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for as I've never dealt with fertile eggs before, but I am assuming these are fertile since they look completely different than my infertile duck eggs

 

[DukesDucks]

I think you might get a better idea if they are viable by waiting at least 10 days.

 

[KaleIAm]

I've never had fertile eggs, either. But I've read about non fertile eggs going bad and bacteria spreading to the developing eggs. I don't know if that really happens or how likely it is, but it seems safer to use dummy eggs.