house full of eggs - help - what now?

[kylee2katie]

Our ducks had quit laying for quite a while and although I was cleaning the pen daily, I had quit checking the "house" for eggs - until this weekend, when I decided to give it a good scrubbing and change out the hay....I have two male mallards, one female pekin, one female muskovy, and 2 female mallards...I found 2 nests within the same house (it's a large plastic dog house). There are, as of Sunday afternoon, close to 30 eggs....and no one is setting....all of my ducks will be 1 year old the first of April. What do I do now? Will they sit anytime soon and maybe, hopefully, hatch some of these? Or do I just need to gather & dispose of them? I don't want blown up egg mess in their house, but I don't want to take them if there is a chance they may set them.

 

[critterranch]

when you say quite a while how long is that? how dirty are the eggs? you could pick out the cleaner ones maybe hoping the cleaner ones could be fresher. and try to incubate yourself if you want too.

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

What about the cool water float test? Older eggs float, fresh eggs sink.

Bryan

 

[duckyfromoz]

With four ducks- if they were each each laying an egg a day- thats maybe 9 days of eggs- but if only one duck - thats a few weeks worth. You could candle them to determine the oldest ones- or ones that have started going rotton already. Choosing only the freshest eggs with the smallest aircells to leave in the nest in case somequack goes broody. you could also mark the eggs that you leave in the nest- so that you can continue to remove the eggs keeping the freshest each time up until some point any of them will sit.

 

[kylee2katie]

Quote:
They quit laying the end of December and I know there were no eggs in January or February. I clean their house at least monthly during the fall and winter and more often in the warmer months. The eggs are not dirty - just look like normal, fresh layed eggs!
I would dare try to incubate - not yet! I would love to have baby ducks again but I will rely on mother nature for that for now!

I clean the pen daily but don't stick my head in the houses everyday! I peak in but these eggs were buried under the hay!
This picture was taken back during the summer but it is the same set up, but both the houses are about a foot deep with hay! and until this past weekend, the pen floor was covered in about 6 inches of oak leaves to protect their feet from the cold!

 

[kylee2katie]

Quote:
It appears that I have 3 different style eggs, small, med., large, white, cream, and green - so I am thinking that each breed is laying. I understand how to candle, but not sure what I would be looking for. How do I tell the rotton ones? how do I determine what an aircell looks like? Please be patient - I am still new to this part!

 

[kylee2katie]

Quote:
Thanks!