Infertile Drake?

[scurry]

I have a drake and 3 ducks that are all approaching a year. This fall we had a good clutch that one of the females went broody on and then after more than enough time she began to take them out of the nest to dispose of them. The clutch was about 20 eggs (we had all three contributing I believe). Investigation found that all of them seemed to be not fertilized by our drake (certainly not for lack of trying!) I wrote that off to maybe being due to age and he might be too young to be fully loaded. We again have a good size clutch with 2 ducks taking turns sitting and I am concerned about the same thing. I found an empty egg with yolk still in it in the pen. Any thoughts? Could I have an infertile drake?

 

[mominoz]

My silkie ducks/drakes were not fertile the first year...but were the 2nd. My Shetland Geese were not fertile the first year, but the Africans were. I wouldn't give up yet.

 

[scurry]

I was wondering about that. I have not been able to find any info on when they mature and get fertile!

 

[Kaessa]

Sometimes it takes them a while to figure out how to do it right, too.

 

[needlessjunk]

Have you cracked any of the eggs open to see id they are fertile? Also 20 eggs is a lot to keep warm and that could be why she lost so many. Has anyone actually started to sit or are they still laying? I would start marking eggs and taking some of the older ones out. Those are getting to be some old eggs at this point. My drake started giving me fertile eggs when he was around 4 months.

 

[scurry]

I did crack the last ones but havent done these yet. I have 2 mama's on the nest now together and separated them from the drake and another female who doesnt seem to be laying so they are left alone. I will take one and try to candle it. I do have 5 in the incubator and when candling them dont seem to see what other pix say I should be seeing.

 

[needlessjunk]

I did crack the last ones but havent done these yet. I have 2 mama's on the nest now together and separated them from the drake and another female who doesnt seem to be laying so they are left alone. I will take one and try to candle it. I do have 5 in the incubator and when candling them dont seem to see what other pix say I should be seeing.

If they are still laying you won't see anything when you candle. Usually 2 ducks on a nest is not going to work out well especially if any hatch. Usually they end up killing the ducklings one way or another. One duck needs to start sitting and not getting up from the nest in order for them to start to develop. If she isn't faithful to sitting all day and night then that would explain why they didn't develop.

 

[scurry]

THey both have been on the nest full time and are not laying from what I can tell. They seem to be taking turns getting off the nest for a few minutes just a couple times a day at most. They really havent left the nest for over 10 days + now at least. Should I take one of them out and just leave the one on it? Also, my drake has very little caruncle from what I was expecting. I had thought he would have more pronounced than the females but he has the least of all of them. Didnt know if that might be an indicator of his maturity and fertility or not

 

[needlessjunk]

THey both have been on the nest full time and are not laying from what I can tell. They seem to be taking turns getting off the nest for a few minutes just a couple times a day at most. They really havent left the nest for over 10 days + now at least. Should I take one of them out and just leave the one on it? Also, my drake has very little caruncle from what I was expecting. I had thought he would have more pronounced than the females but he has the least of all of them. Didnt know if that might be an indicator of his maturity and fertility or not

Hmmm... I'm don't know muscovies at all. @Miss Lydia could you give some insight? I think muscovies take longer to mature sexually so that could explain last year. You should see something if you candle them since they have been sitting. I don't know what to do about them sharing. I just remember a story not too long ago about it resulting in a duckling being trampled by the other duck when they were sharing a nest.

 

[scurry]

ok thanks for the help. I will decide today what to do about splitting them up