Duck not sitting on eggs!?

[Agwhite]

We have a pair of Mallards that we raised last spring, and a hen nesting behind our AC unit. She’s been laying for 2 weeks at a rate of 2 eggs day and now has 20 eggs in her nest!! But she's still not sitting on them! I know that they typically don’t sit until their done laying and ready to brood. But 20 eggs seems like more than enough for such a small bird to brood. I honestly feel like some of them won’t survive. This is her first time laying eggs, as she's still pretty young. Her nest is full! Is this normal? How long should I leave them in there? Or should I take them out? I don't know what to do!

 

[fatty and friends]

she probably won’t sit on them, ducks lay eggs and just leave them lol

 

[Isadora]

she probably won’t sit on them, ducks lay eggs and just leave them lol

Mallards go broody pretty easily. I'm thinking since she's young she just needs some time to figure it out.

We have a pair of Mallards that we raised last spring, and a hen nesting behind our AC unit. She’s been laying for 2 weeks at a rate of 2 eggs day and now has 20 eggs in her nest!! But she's still not sitting on them! I know that they typically don’t sit until their done laying and ready to brood. But 20 eggs seems like more than enough for such a small bird to brood. I honestly feel like some of them won’t survive. This is her first time laying eggs, as she's still pretty young. Her nest is full! Is this normal? How long should I leave them in there? Or should I take them out? I don't know what to do!

Do you want her to hatch some?
If yes, you're right that 20 is way too many for her to incubate successfully. If it were me, I would remove all but 10-12 and mark the ones I left. Remove any eggs laid after that.
Hopefully her broody instincts will kick in soon and she'll start sitting.

 

[Agwhite]

Mallards go broody pretty easily. I'm thinking since she's young she just needs some time to figure it out.


Do you want her to hatch some?
If yes, you're right that 20 is way too many for her to incubate successfully. If it were me, I would remove all but 10-12 and mark the ones I left. Remove any eggs laid after that.
Hopefully her broody instincts will kick in soon and she'll start sitting.

I most definitely want her to hatch ducklings. In fact, once she got up 14 eggs I removed 4 of them and put them in another ducks nest to balance things out. But she just laid even more. The other hen is now sitting so I don’t know what to do with the extra eggs.