I found some eggs

[jsdspif]

I'm the guy with the 2 rouen ducks that I've been trying to figure out if they're male or female. They are now about 5 and a half months old. Last Thursday I changed out their pine shaving/straw bedding and then Friday and Saturday I opened the back doors of their house as I normally do just to get plenty of fresh air in there. Sunday I didn't open the doors because it was raining on and off thru the day. Then Monday when I opened the doors I started to kind of "fluff" up the straw bedding and saw something white under the straw so when I moved some straw away there were 3 eggs in a pile. So at some point on Thur. , Fri.,Sat.,and Sun. night 3 eggs were layed. I still don't know which one or if both of them laid eggs but all 3 were right together and they had been somewhat covered up.
those 3 I didn't know what to do with them because I don't know anything about eggs so I put them in a container and put them in my garbage can. From now on in the morning I'm going to look for egg/s and if I find any do I just put them in the refrigerator? Do I wash them first? What happens if I want to have one baby duck? If I have a baby duck from an egg and it's male, does it want to have sex with the mother? There's a mess of questions but I know absolutely nothing about any kind of eggs "straight from the source". Or if you can point me to a previous post for duck eggs?? Thanks.

 

[Texag87]

First, congratulations on the eggs. You do not want to try to hatch eggs until your hen has been laying for a while. You can, however, eat them. You will find they have a much better flavor than chicken eggs. We don’t wash our eggs until it’s time to eat them. Maybe wipe off poop with a paper towel but washing takes a protective coat off the egg and it won’t be fresh as long. They still taste good after a month in the fridge .

 

[Kabootar]

First of all Rouen ducks are one of the easiest breed to sex. The male is larger and colourful with greenish sheen, female is smaller and dull brown in colour.

 

[Texag87]

Your other questions are harder to answer. Do you have a drake and a hen or two hens ? Obviously at least one is a hen. If the other is a drake you can hatch one egg but will have to incubate the egg. Your other question has to do with.......a drake mating with his mother. Yes he would but daddy drake would probable fight with him and win before that happened. At this age you should be able to tell. Rouen drakes are the prettiest mallard derived drake like the post above.

 

[Kabootar]

I'm the guy with the 2 rouen ducks that I've been trying to figure out if they're male or female. They are now about 5 and a half months old. Last Thursday I changed out their pine shaving/straw bedding and then Friday and Saturday I opened the back doors of their house as I normally do just to get plenty of fresh air in there. Sunday I didn't open the doors because it was raining on and off thru the day. Then Monday when I opened the doors I started to kind of "fluff" up the straw bedding and saw something white under the straw so when I moved some straw away there were 3 eggs in a pile. So at some point on Thur. , Fri.,Sat.,and Sun. night 3 eggs were layed. I still don't know which one or if both of them laid eggs but all 3 were right together and they had been somewhat covered up.
those 3 I didn't know what to do with them because I don't know anything about eggs so I put them in a container and put them in my garbage can. From now on in the morning I'm going to look for egg/s and if I find any do I just put them in the refrigerator? Do I wash them first? What happens if I want to have one baby duck? If I have a baby duck from an egg and it's male, does it want to have sex with the mother? There's a mess of questions but I know absolutely nothing about any kind of eggs "straight from the source". Or if you can point me to a previous post for duck eggs?? Thanks.

Secondly why would you put the eggs in garbage can??? Why wouldn't you eat them?
Thirdly if you want to hatch ducklings don't put the eggs in the refrigerator the eggs will get cold and the embryo will die. don't wash the eggs either, eggs have a protective coating that protects the eggs from bacteria and washing them will make the eggs go bad.

Fourthly, if you want to hatch ducklings you will either need an incubator or a duck who is willing to sit on the eggs like a Muscovy. I don't keep Rouen ducks but I have heard that they are not good sitters.

Finally, yes the offsprings will mate with their parents and also eachother. The best way is to eat or sell all the drakes and introduce a new drake once the ducklings grow up.

 

[Texag87]

Our year old Rouens have no interest in brooding.

 

[jsdspif]

Thanks. If I have a male duck it hasn't changed yet but right now I'm going with the one with the orangish/little bit of black bill with pumpkin orange legs is female and then the other with the olive green bill and legs that aren't as pumpkin orange they kind of look like they've been smoked, they have kind of a brownish color ,I don't know what sex that one is.
The reason I didn't eat the eggs was I didn't know how long they can be out of the refrigerator and still be safe to eat. If the first one got layed Thursday night that would mean it had been there for 4 or 5 days and I have no way of knowing which egg may have been layed say Monday morning and which was layed friday morning.
I have some oyster shell calcium crumbles for chickens/ducks do I just put a little of that in their food and if they want to eat it they can,or how does that work? These eggs looked just fine 2 were about the size of a store bought large or jumbo egg but one was a little bigger than the other 2 but they looked like nice eggs,I just didn't know if they were safe to eat if they've been there for 4 days.I plan on checking daily now.
I guess the last question do they just lay one per day ?

 

[Kabootar]

Thanks. If I have a male duck it hasn't changed yet but right now I'm going with the one with the orangish/little bit of black bill with pumpkin orange legs is female and then the other with the olive green bill and legs that aren't as pumpkin orange they kind of look like they've been smoked, they have kind of a brownish color ,I don't know what sex that one is.
The reason I didn't eat the eggs was I didn't know how long they can be out of the refrigerator and still be safe to eat. If the first one got layed Thursday night that would mean it had been there for 4 or 5 days and I have no way of knowing which egg may have been layed say Monday morning and which was layed friday morning.
I have some oyster shell calcium crumbles for chickens/ducks do I just put a little of that in their food and if they want to eat it they can,or how does that work? These eggs looked just fine 2 were about the size of a store bought large or jumbo egg but one was a little bigger than the other 2 but they looked like nice eggs,I just didn't know if they were safe to eat if they've been there for 4 days.I plan on checking daily now.
I guess the last question do they just lay one per day ?

It would be easier if you can post their pictures.

The eggs are fine to eat for several days if kept at room temperature and not washed. It is safe to eat even a week old egg in a simmering hot weather. Most of the eggs you buy in the super market are several weeks old and are equally fine mostly because they are refrigerated.

 

[jsdspif]

I've tried taking pictures 3 or 4 times and they just don't turn out where you can see something to identify them, except there were a couple you could tell the difference in the color of their legs. I mainly had been curious if I was going to get any eggs out of the deal so I've got an answer to that question.

 

[jsdspif]

After what I think was getting all the eggs gathered yesterday (there were 3 of them) now today just now I found 3 more in the same spot. and they were again covered up. It's possible I may have missed one yesterday but I thought I got all of them,so that would mean one duck layed 2 or 3 eggs,overnight? I don't know how many eggs they usually lay overnight. So I took these and just put them in an egg carton I had and put it in the fridge. I also wrote a date on the eggs. I'll wash them off right before I'm going to use them. These are about the size of an large or extra large store bought chicken egg. Smaller than a jumbo because I had one jumbo left in that carton and it wasn't that big.
Basically I'm now wondering, how many eggs does one duck lay overnight.