How long to leave eggs in nest before you give up on duck setting.

[Pinx]

(I'm sure yall are thrilled that I have another newbie question lol.)

Ok so I have 4 Cayugas, 1) 2 year old girl and 2) girls over a year old... then of course my drake.

I have left their eggs in the nest but I'm not sure how long to leave them before I decide they aren't going to go broody and I need to put them in an incubator. Right now there are only 2 almost white eggs (I think from my older girl) and 1 really dark egg... so there is at least 2 of them laying.

These are my first ducks and last year none of the eggs were fertile so this is my first time at doing this. I'm worried if I wait too long I won't have any babies.... but I'm not sure how long I should wait. Any ideas?

 

[Pinx]

Shameless bump lol. I would really like opinions on this, I haven't found anything that says how long people wait before they decide they need to take the eggs to incubate.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Shameless bump lol. I would really like opinions on this, I haven't found anything that says how long people wait before they decide they need to take the eggs to incubate.

Ducks lay a certain amount of eggs before they go broody, and depending on the duck that can be from 5-20 lol. if you take the eggs they will continue to lay but leaving the eggs they may eventually get the broody bug. Some breeds of ducks have had the broodiness bred out of them so you just never know. but the season is still young so it wouldn't hurt to let them lay for a while before you give up on them , then if they don't go take those and maybe when they start to lay again one might get broody. I have Muscovys which are broody fanatics and not one of my 10 have even considered going broody yet. It's still early.

 

[jdywntr]

Cayugas are rated fair to good in their mothering ability which includes broodiness. So, they may not even go broody.

What you can do is mark the eggs daily and if one decides to go broody, you can remove the oldest, smallest and any mishapen eggs. That way she will have a better chance of a good hatch. Or mark several eggs and remove the rest from the nest and continue to remove them until she sets.

You can also get a bunch of fake eggs or golf balls etc and put them in the nest and when you notice one is intent on being broody, return the freshest eggs to the nest and remove the fake ones.

Have a plan for ducklings in advance if you decide to hatch. If you plan to sell them, you may not be able to and could end up with 10-15 more ducklings. Also, if one goes broody, I'd advise only giving her a limited number of eggs to set on.

 

[Pinx]

Thanks, I plan on only letting her have 10 or so eggs to hatch. No more then that anyway, if I think she can't cover them well I'll cut that number down more.

I want some of the ducklings for myself, and I can easily sell the extras. I always have people trying to buy my ducks when they come over. If for some reason I have to hang on to them for longer I have plenty of space to keep them until someone comes along and wants to buy some again. I love my ducks, so I may end up with 10 more birds that I can't part with lol.

Thanks for the help.

 

[jdywntr]

I think 10 is a good number for a first time mom. They sometimes get carried away.

I would mark them though so that you can leave her with the freshest ones.

 

[Pinx]

I will mark them, thank you.

 

[mrshaggie810]

Thank you so much for this thread! I was wondering how many they would lay before trying to set on them! My Rouen duck has made a nest, and is laying into it, and sleeps on it at night, but gets up off it when I let them out to free-range, BUT it's only been about 6 days and there are only 6 (maybe 7...I think my Cayuga layed one in there) so I will give her a little longer to see if she is going to start sitting on them! Thanks! I'll mark them too! Great idea!

 

[Skyranchmom]

Ducks lay a certain amount of eggs before they go broody, and depending on the duck that can be from 5-20 lol. if you take the eggs they will continue to lay but leaving the eggs they may eventually get the broody bug. Some breeds of ducks have had the broodiness bred out of them so you just nev

er know. but the season is still young so it wouldn't hurt to let them lay for a while before you give up on them , then if they don't go take those and maybe when they start to lay again one might get broody. I have Muscovys which are broody fanatics and not one of my 10 have even considered going broody yet. It's still early.

I have a couple ducks laying in same nest, there are about 15 eggs in the nest now, waiting to see if one will go broody, I have 3 duck eggs in incubator now for another 2 weeks

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have a couple ducks laying in same nest, there are about 15 eggs in the nest now, waiting to see if one will go broody, I have 3 duck eggs in incubator now for another 2 weeks

What breed of ducks?