I just want her to set, is that so much to ask!?! *Update - post #1*

[sparkles2307]

My Rouen hen is driving me to distraction! She has 16 eggs now, has been steadily laying in the same nest for 18 days now...she started out with a crappy little divot in the ground has has fancied it up with a nice rim of straw and cushioned the back part (the 2x4s that are the barn wall) with extra straw...but NO feathers or down yet...and she leaves them all day and all night, just comes in in the morning to lay another eggs then leaves again. She even has a bcakup nest in the hayshed where she lays if we dont let her into the coop in time, but she much prefers to lay in her nest. I dont think many more eggs will FIT under her! And they are fertile, I have checked a few. How do I make the switch in her head click that "oh, these are my babies, I should sit on them!" !?!? Argh!


As of Saturday night she is setting! Not totally committed yet, so we have removed the drake (poor Sax, he is herding the goats now...he just doesnt know what to do my poor baby!) because anytime she hears him she comes out and wants to go swimming. Last count 18-19 (I didnt get too close when counting) and she finally made her nest NICE with down and stuff. *crossing finners* the countdown begins!

 

[sparkles2307]

Watch, now that I posted this I will get home tonight to find her firmly parked on the nest

 

[starryeyes]

I wish i could help I have heard that rouens do not sit well on eggs. I take my rouens eggs they lay them all over the yard. But today kids said the girls (3of them)had a nest in the yard with three eggs so now i am confused should i put the eggs i collected into the nest or what ? So I am in the same boat as you i have no idea if they will sit on them. I hope answers will soon roll in on here.

Good Luck Starry

 

[sparkles2307]

LOL so I guess my question should be "Does anyone have a broody duck!?!" lol

 

[shelleyd2008]

Have you been collecting eggs from her at all, or just letting her keep them? The reason I ask is that I have a rouen duck that is setting right now. I was collecting eggs everyday, and most times she would use the same nest. Then she started moving it. I would get the eggs from the same spot for 4-5 days, then I would have to hunt them down again. Eventually it got to where it was almost a daily thing that I would have to look for her nest. I finally found it, with 4 or 5 eggs in it. It was no where near where she had been laying before, up until then all of her 'nests' were in the same general area. So I figured, if she was so dead-set on hiding them, I would leave them alone and see what happens. She now has 12 eggs in her nest and is sitting on them like a good girl!

So the moral of the story is, leave the eggs alone if they act like they are very attached to them, and they'll probably sit.

Your duck could lay for months before she decides to go broody, if she ever does. Rouens are not known to be broody, but they can be.

I have had chicken hens that layed eggs for a month straight when they first start laying, before they ever go broody. One in particular did that last summer, she was a first time layer. Since she set on that first batch of eggs, she has set and hatched 4 more times.

Your duck could just be a bit young, and needs to get laying out of her system first

 

[sparkles2307]

Ugh well I was taking them till I found a fertile one, then I started leaving them. I guess theres no point, I need to get another breed! I am thinking 2 of my 3 new ducklings are mallards and one is a rouen... hopefully I have better luck... Wish she drake was the rouen and the hen was the saxony!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Do you mark the eggs? You can always leave like 6 or 7 eggs in the nest, and take the older ones out. That way, if she does set she'll have a good amount of eggs, and if she doesn't, the eggs you take away won't be all that old.

 

[sparkles2307]

Eh no, I mean, duck eggs are great and all for eating, but we arent that shook up about them getting too old while we wait for her to grow a brain

 

[Duck Keeper]

Quote:
I do! I do!
I'm so proud of my Buff Mama! Soon she'll live up to her name.

First year duck! WOOHOO!
-dance dance dance-

Buff duck from McMurray Hatchery.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Kind of meant you could take the older ones and incubate them yourself