Incubating duck eggs

[Jinglebells0518]

I have some pet ducks. Every year they lay eggs and every year they are eaten by foxes, raccoons, Hawks, eagles, snakes, turtles, and any number of other things and I'm sick and tired of it. I believe her clutch was taken just last night but I was out of town.

So I have a couple questions.

Will ducks come back and lay in the same nest if they find their eggs missing? Will they start a new nests somewhere else? Or will they just quit laying all together?

If she does lay in the same nest, I want to incubate them. She will likely lay in the morning (Tuesday) but I won't be able to get an incubator until Thursday morning and I don't want to leave them outside again especially since the predator now knows where to look. If she hasn't started incubating them yet will it be okay for me to bring the eggs inside my house (80 degrees F) for a day or two until I get it? I don't have a heat lamp but if incubation hasn't started will they be okay for two days? Or I can leave them outside and keep them covered in a safe spot where the temperature has been about 90+ during the day and 70-75 at night.

What is the best way to do this? I'm new to hatching my own eggs but I really want some babies!

 

[tacothechicken]

Ive had ducks but never had any drakes XD BUT I can tell you that duck eggs are similar to chicken eggs in that they are perfectly fine sitting around for days before incubation( it takes 24 straight incubation hours to begin embryo development at all)as hens lay one egg a day and will make huge nests! As long as you turn the egg regularly to keep yolk healthy and don't refrigerate it, and the eggs are fertile they'll be fine if it takes you a few days to get an incubator we lost our whole flock one day and found some hidden eggs around 2 weeks later. successfully hatched 3/4! Eggs are hardy

 

[Jinglebells0518]

Ive had ducks but never had any drakes XD BUT I can tell you that duck eggs are similar to chicken eggs in that they are perfectly fine sitting around for days before incubation( it takes 24 straight incubation hours to begin embryo development at all)as hens lay one egg a day and will make huge nests! As long as you turn the egg regularly to keep yolk healthy and don't refrigerate it, and the eggs are fertile they'll be fine if it takes you a few days to get an incubator we lost our whole flock one day and found some hidden eggs around 2 weeks later. successfully hatched 3/4! Eggs are hardy

Oh that's great to hear! Mama laid another egg this morning. But since something obviously knows where her nest is I want to bring the egg in before it gets eaten. If her eggs go missing for a second time, will she stop laying in that nest? She hasn't started incubation yet but she should be on egg 8. So she might have anywhere between 1-7 more egg laying days to go. I don't want to discourage laying in her nest where I can locate the eggs but they will likely be eaten again if I continue to leave them.

Thoughts?

Anything I can do to protect the nest or deter predators that won't scare away mom?

 

[tacothechicken]

If she's already on egg 8 I'd say your good to take an egg or two something I've done for hens is(if she's small enough) put a dog crate or wire cage to whith door over the nest and cover whith a tarp at . So she can get in and it dissuades coons and what not from going sniffing through the grass when shes gone. She should be willing to go along whith it as it is extra protection.

 

[Jinglebells0518]

I might try that. And this is her 8th egg laid but the first 7 were eaten so if I take this egg the nest will be empty again

 

[tacothechicken]

Hmm in that case it may be best to wait till she gets back up to 3 so it doesn't put her off to much, or if you have eggs in your fridge you can swap em out

 

[Jinglebells0518]

I thought about that too. But nothing to stop the predator from just taking that one and still leaving the nest empty. I'm going to try a golf ball tonight and then purchase some ceramic eggs at the store