Sounds like your drake is very keen!
Your duck though is still just starting to manufacture eggs, so if you do decide to let her hatch these early ones, I think that you might be disappointed with the number that might hatch out of the number she eventually sits on. That's because there is a lot of scope for the eggs to be "not quite right" to start with, and also if they do hatch, then the babies might have more chance of not being strong, healthy or formed correctly. Just my thoughts.
To answer your question, once/if she does decide to brood, then she may become quite protective of the nest. Depending on how tame she is, she might just make growling noises when you go near, or she might attack you! My chickens were hand-reared so are more than happy for me to mess about with the eggs with just a few clucking sounds of disapproval. You know your duck best and if she is generally very friendly, then she will probably tolerate you coming close.
Unless you are desperate to have ducklings indoors (when you have to buy a brooder, light, etc and put up with an enormous mess and terrible smell!) then Mummy duck is the best one to hatch and raise her own ducklings, in my view. You also save on the cost of an incubator. Even as a novice, she will have a better hatch rate than an incubator if she stays the course, i.e. doesn't abandon them half way through, and you won't have to worry about temperature/humidity etc before or after they hatch. You might need to separate the drake for a bit though until they are grown.
If you are worried she might not commit to brooding, then it would be a good idea to find someone local from whom you could borrow an incubator if you needed to, but I would not go and buy one unless you wanted to incubate eggs regularly.
I would repeat however, that to avoid disappointment, it is a good idea to test out her commitment first on some dummy eggs. If you are determined to try and hatch her eggs now, then you can still collect the eggs she lays over the next week or so and keep them cool for now, replacing them with the dummies (which you can buy on
ebay or from the feed store) until you are sure she is sitting on them full-time for at least 5 days, then put back the real eggs. This way, if she does not commit to sitting, you can at least eat the unbrooded eggs and they are not wasted. Once she has her full clutch, if she sits for a few days or weeks on the real ones and then abandons them, (and you don't have any alternative arangements) then you might feel worse about losing the contents.
Anyway, you can candle them after 10 days whether in an incubator or underneath her to see what is happening. I have never had much luck candling though, as it is not always easy to see/interpret the contents inside as duck egg shells tends to be quite thick. I have always just left them all under the mum until 30 days to make sure that any that are going to hatch have hatched. There was a thread a few months ago where someone put some brooded eggs she had discovered in a nest in a bucket of water to see which floated and which sank, and then threw away the ones which she thought were bad, only to find them on the compost heap cheeping the next day! I can't remember whether they were the floating or the sinking ones though! I think she managed to save some of them.
I can tell you are very excited. I know, it is almost like having your own children again! It is also very hard to be patient, believe me, I know! It is good that this forum has loads of really experienced duck-keepers who can give you great advice, wihch I have had the benefit of myself. I can only give you my views, so I am sure others with more experience will contribute, and I am sure you will take all that on board.
Best of luck and do keep us updated on your progress!
