Jinglebells0518
Chirping
- Jun 25, 2018
- 84
- 95
- 63
So our duck has been laying eggs in her nest over the past week and a half. The last times she laid in this same nest something took her eggs so since it was the same nest in the same spot we decided we would take her eggs in and incubate them.
We've been replacing them with golf balls so she would keep laying and now on egg 9 she has been on her nest all day so far. I'm assuming she has started incubating since she is usually done laying by about 9:30am and today she is still on her nest at 1:30pm.
She likely laid one egg this morning so she is incubating 8 golf balls and the egg I'm assuming she laid this morning. The rest of hers are in our incubator.
Should we let her incubate this egg? I'm worried for many reasons:
1) something just took an infertile egg I put back out there 2 days ago so there is a still a predator watching the nest. I don't want her to be attacked sitting on an egg.
2) the egg will likely still be taken at some point during the 28 days so it would be safer in the incubator.
3) if for some reason she didn't lay this morning or that egg doesn't make it, I don't want her to sit there for 28 days incubating golf balls that she thinks are babies.
4) ducklings have not survived in our area for many years. We have tons of foxes, snakes, turtles, Hawks, and eagles so even if she hatches one, it's survival without human intervention is not likely.
Should I take the egg from her and remove the golf balls so she will stop incubating? We don't really have a good way to separate her and her nest for her to incubate safely that she will have a way to freely leave to get water and food and also the 2 drakes with her are very protective and have been with her for 2 years so I don't know how they would do separated
I feel bad doing this since she's been laying on and off in this nest for 2 months and nothing ever comes of it. But it seems the best outcome for all involved. Should I empty the nest? Do I need to wait for her to leave the nest to take everything? What's the most likely time for her to leave since I know she won't be off the nest often now that she's started. Will this cause her distress? I'm worried to leave her through the night.
We've been replacing them with golf balls so she would keep laying and now on egg 9 she has been on her nest all day so far. I'm assuming she has started incubating since she is usually done laying by about 9:30am and today she is still on her nest at 1:30pm.
She likely laid one egg this morning so she is incubating 8 golf balls and the egg I'm assuming she laid this morning. The rest of hers are in our incubator.
Should we let her incubate this egg? I'm worried for many reasons:
1) something just took an infertile egg I put back out there 2 days ago so there is a still a predator watching the nest. I don't want her to be attacked sitting on an egg.
2) the egg will likely still be taken at some point during the 28 days so it would be safer in the incubator.
3) if for some reason she didn't lay this morning or that egg doesn't make it, I don't want her to sit there for 28 days incubating golf balls that she thinks are babies.
4) ducklings have not survived in our area for many years. We have tons of foxes, snakes, turtles, Hawks, and eagles so even if she hatches one, it's survival without human intervention is not likely.
Should I take the egg from her and remove the golf balls so she will stop incubating? We don't really have a good way to separate her and her nest for her to incubate safely that she will have a way to freely leave to get water and food and also the 2 drakes with her are very protective and have been with her for 2 years so I don't know how they would do separated
I feel bad doing this since she's been laying on and off in this nest for 2 months and nothing ever comes of it. But it seems the best outcome for all involved. Should I empty the nest? Do I need to wait for her to leave the nest to take everything? What's the most likely time for her to leave since I know she won't be off the nest often now that she's started. Will this cause her distress? I'm worried to leave her through the night.
