duck nesting questions

[Tiny Acres Farm]

Hey howdy hey everyone,
I'm looking for some advise and opinions. Still pretty new to ducks but I've read a bunch of info here and there always looking to learn more. Any ways we now have a mating pair of pekins and what we think are three female mascovys and one male mascovy. We started with a trio of pekins but one female has been mia for about three days now. We are hoping she is sitting somewhere hidden really well which brings me to a question. We found a nest several days ago and decided to leave it to see if one would sit, it currently has 22 eggs in it. Yesterday and today the remaining pekin has been seen sitting but not for very long she gets off for long periods of time several times a day. Is this still normal? With that many eggs i figured she would start staying on it more? Today we also found two other nests one with 3 and the other with 2 eggs. We would much rather do the natural thing but how long is too long to wait if she doesn't start sitting more? By the way we are in Florida ive read a bit that in warmer places they may not need to sit as much is this the case? Sorry for blabbering just looking for some real life experiences!!!! Thank you.

 

[Amiga]

From what I have read here, broody behavior is all over the map, especially for Pekins. Some sit for a day, some for a few days, some maybe a week or two, every now and then one gets seriously broody.

Muscovies are much more likely to brood and hatch.

And broodies are very very very at-risk for being killed by predators unless their nest is in a predator-safe area. Please be sure that if they're sitting, they're sitting somewhere they won't be killed.

 

[Tiny Acres Farm]

Thank you for the reply. So how long would you wait to see if one of them will sit before you take the eggs?