Mallard ducks egg laying experience

[The Nut Quacker]

I am a new mallard duck momma and I wanted to post a thread on this topic as it was really difficult to find any info online when my two females started laying and I was really stressed out not knowing if their behavior was ‘normal’ and if I should intervene. *spoiler - everything turned out a-o-quack

I did end up getting some help on Instagram. I am 32, social media is popular in my life, so I found some farms and messaged them. You can also try Facebook. Or your neighbor. Everyone ‘loves’ their birds in a different way. So when that redneck looks at you and simply proclaims ‘just snap their neck’ don’t be offended. You’ll find your answer that suit you most!!!

What :Two female true mallards, one drake.

Names : Duck (female) Duck (female) Goose (drake)

Where : North Carolina; most eastern part (beach)

When : April 2000 - July 2022

DUCKLINGS TO JUVENILES::: Acquired these beauties when they were a few days old. Raised them inside for two months until I felt they were large enough to be outside. I had a heated lamp and a shallow water dish/soaking tub of water - took them three times a week and was life guard on duty while they swam in my bathtub, responsible temperature (warm) for 15 minutes or so.
FOOD : supplemental vitamins in water occasionally, peas, nutritional yeast, sweet potatoes (all great sources of niacin) mealworms for treats, and flock raiser duckling type. Niacin is important for duck growth. I then took my four ducklings out to my pond and let them free. NOTE: they are completely free-range, no clipped wings. Basically just outside in the wild. I have a very large pond, I suspect there is a beaver or they have been bumped one too many times by the turtles and large koi fish in there and are now a little anxious to go in the deep end. But they still bathe nonetheless and mozy about in the more shallow ends.
ILLNESS: I never had deficiencies or viruses or other illness, they were all very healthy. I highly recommend going to a responsible hatchery and asking al important all questions. Once I went to a suspect chicken raiser and brought home a chicken with marek’s disease (chicken herpes) This was absolutely heartbreaking to go through, she was my sweetest chicken and I was new to flock raising so unfortunately she went through it pretty badly. By the time I realized what was happening she was in bad shape. I’m sorry Quack the chicken. It was always you. RIP.
SLEEPING PATTERNS: They sleep on the bank of the pond or more commonly in the middle of my pond. After their sibling, Duck, had been somethings breakfast they learned quickly mr fox won’t swim to the middle of the pond. Mr fox is not my favorite. I do not like mr fox.
LOVE MAKING: My drake breeds heavily from about March-July with his ladies. They swim in circles in the pond with torpedo force, bob their heads, and spread their wings to show off.

EGG LAYING/NESTING: first time mothers are not very good mothers. It’s a learning experience for them. And they make lots of mistakes. My two female ducks in the beginning were sharing one nest. By the time the “clutch” was ready to go through incubation the poor girl had 30 eggs under her, and one of them wasn’t holding up her end, meaning only one duck would incubate. Interestingly enough, I did not know they would share a nest. Another mistake is they were laying in December and started incubation during winter when there was lots of frost on the ground. It was getting down to the 20’s here - once I found the nest, (in the long grass a few inches from the ponds edge) there were about 32 eggs and I had to make the call to pull the eggs to give the potential ducklings a fighting chance. It didn’t make sense to watch them hatch only to freeze. My end game was to just let the circle of life be as natural as possible - so there was no duckling house in preparation. The next egg laying process was just as stressful. I would find nests everywhere on my property with three or four in them and then abandoned. There are many reasons why Duck and Duck did this, so I can’t say for sure. Sometimes their nests just didn’t suit them anymore. A few times I had a lone egg in the middle of my yard. Finally duck decided to make a separate nest in the pampas grass about 200 feet from my pond, and the other Duck made one by the wall of my shed surrounded by long wheat grass. Interestingly - duck laid about ten eggs in Ducks nest by the shed then abandoned it to lay nine eggs and call that clutch to incubate in her nest by the pampas grass, so again, the poor girl by the shed had 25 eggs to incubate. Hers plus her sisters. I pulled a few because it was physically impossible for her to efficiently incubate that many. They both started incubation about one month apart, which was good for Goose because he was a bit lost without at least one female there with him. Pampas grass hatched first. She led them safely to my pond after about 12 hours of them slowly hatching one by one. They lived for one month until mr fox came over to visit with them. Shed nest was almost ready to hatch when a possum came and raided her nest and ate almost every single egg. Stupid possum. I saved a few to try to incubate myself with little to no equipment. I wasn’t prepared to incubate eggs. Just a heat lamp and water dish for humidity. I also could not determine how long they had been sitting in my yard, they were cold to the touch. They may have gotten too warm with my underprepared incubation station. Some eggs started “leaking” which could mean there was a bacterial infection inside which would eventually cause the eggs to explode. No thanks. They were thrown out.
We are back down to three adult ducks and as I type this now, Duck laid another nest under my hostas by my front door and the ducklings are emerging out of their shells - there were 11, by the morning she will have led them to my pond. I’m going to pull a few to raise indoors for a few months so mr fox won’t try to introduce them to his belly this time. They fly away when they are older when he tries to hang out with them. Ducklings, however, don’t stand a chance.

That’s my story. If you have opinions please go easy on me, I am very new to this, and I know I have made some mistakes but I continue to learn.

A few things worth mentioning. Egg size is slightly larger than a chickens and they are a turquoise color with a thicker shell than a chickens. The texture is rubbery, or waxy with a a matte finish. They are dense eggs. The yolks are larger and a deeper orange. The male duck sometimes gets aggressive with ducklings but behaves himself mostly. Once there was only one duckling left he became even more aggressive and I almost separated him before mr fox claimed the duckling. I advice strongly against tampering with nests or letting the females see you messing with their nests. They will abandon if anything seems off. Ducks have very good memories and will hold a grudge against you if you do something they don’t enjoy. Since my ducks are so wild, they do not let me touch, pet, or pick them up. I tried once with Duck and she doesn’t let me get very close anymore. The most they let me do is eat from my hand. Drakes molt. Shed feathers. They aren’t sick, they are just growing new feathers. I feed them flock raiser and they enjoy food found in the wild. Chickens and ducks are not friends if not raised together but nothing scary goes down. My ducks have made several nests through the year. I read mallards only have one clutch per year but mine have had two each. They will lay eggs until a certain point, 13 or so eggs, then stop laying and sit on them until hatched. I don’t know if they are still laying every day as they are very secretive egg layers. But I think they lay periodically throughout the year. There was a few times Duck had left her ducklings alone and vulnerable in the morning for an hour and I can only reasonably think she would do this to continue laying eggs in the grass. At one point my ducklings got lost but came back.

Here’s a photo dump for ya! These photos are from most recent to latest .

I love Duck, Duck, and Goose. Hope I helped any newbie out there.

*UPDATE. Looks like nine of the 11 made it. I set my alarm around five in the morning to try to watch them make the journey to my pond... but I slept through it. Anyway, there are nine ducklings there. And wouldn’t you know it, two eggs left in the nest. So if this happens to you. Duck has good instincts and it’s usually for a reason. Unless you can feel the egg moving around or you can see cracks and movement I would say to toss them. You can be absolutely sure by doing a candle test (I use my iPhone because it’s the 21st century) put the egg on whatever your light source is in a dark room and spin it around to identify what’s going on in your egg. One of the eggs I didn’t want to crack open because it looked like there was a lot of liquid and blood The other one was partially formed hardened with a little blood. A million reasons why they didn’t make it. I’m no eggspert but there is a lot of good info online about eggs. Just not domestic mallard nest behavior.


July 16th-
I pulled two ducklings from the nine and Duck. She was PO’d. And that’s an understatement. After my heart was crushed from doing this and watching her scream, searching for them while they howled back, I’ve set them in a tote with heat lamp and water dish with food. They are very stressed, I noticed the only thing that helps them lower their stress is covering them with a towel and putting a lot of pressure on them while holding them. My guess is this simulates Duck when she’s putting them to sleep sitting on top of them with her wings extended. Day one complete. One of them is more calm than the other. Both bills have different color markings. And one is both smaller and darker than the other. I’ll keep updating. This is kind of nice to journal for my records, this is the first successful year of two clutch hatches of many more to come, and my second time raising ducks but this is my first coming from my own ducks. EXCITING!!! Plus I’m hoping to help any newbie’s out there!!! Added new photos of ducklings sleeping and one popping out of her bed for a glamour shot with me

 

[raingarden]

That's beautiful. How well do the adults fly?

 

[The Nut Quacker]

That's beautiful. How well do the adults fly?

oops sorry, missed the how well part. Im not sure I can say how well they fly because they don’t go very far. Never more than about 60 feet up and around my property. It’s awesome watching them fly around my house in the morning. They will do laps. Or fly from my back porch to my pond, which is about two acres in between. They have never flown farther than that though. I love when it’s around April and March, wild mallards come visit my mallards then. The wild mallards stay for a few days then fly away.

 

[BelovedBirds]

I am a new mallard duck momma and I wanted to post a thread on this topic as it was really difficult to find any info online when my two females started laying and I was really stressed out not knowing if their behavior was ‘normal’ and if I should intervene. *spoiler - everything turned out a-o-quack

I did end up getting some help on Instagram. I am 32, social media is popular in my life, so I found some farms and messaged them. You can also try Facebook. Or your neighbor. Everyone ‘loves’ their birds in a different way. So when that redneck looks at you and simply proclaims ‘just snap their neck’ don’t be offended. You’ll find your answer that suit you most!!!

What :Two female true mallards, one drake.

Names : Duck (female) Duck (female) Goose (drake)

Where : North Carolina; most eastern part (beach)

When : April 2000 - July 2022

DUCKLINGS TO JUVENILES::: Acquired these beauties when they were a few days old. Raised them inside for two months until I felt they were large enough to be outside. I had a heated lamp and a shallow water dish/soaking tub of water - took them three times a week and was life guard on duty while they swam in my bathtub, responsible temperature (warm) for 15 minutes or so.
FOOD : supplemental vitamins in water occasionally, peas, nutritional yeast, sweet potatoes (all great sources of niacin) mealworms for treats, and flock raiser duckling type. Niacin is important for duck growth. I then took my four ducklings out to my pond and let them free. NOTE: they are completely free-range, no clipped wings. Basically just outside in the wild. I have a very large pond, I suspect there is a beaver or they have been bumped one too many times by the turtles and large koi fish in there and are now a little anxious to go in the deep end. But they still bathe nonetheless and mozy about in the more shallow ends.
ILLNESS: I never had deficiencies or viruses or other illness, they were all very healthy. I highly recommend going to a responsible hatchery and asking al important all questions. Once I went to a suspect chicken raiser and brought home a chicken with marek’s disease (chicken herpes) This was absolutely heartbreaking to go through, she was my sweetest chicken and I was new to flock raising so unfortunately she went through it pretty badly. By the time I realized what was happening she was in bad shape. I’m sorry Quack the chicken. It was always you. RIP.
SLEEPING PATTERNS: They sleep on the bank of the pond or more commonly in the middle of my pond. After their sibling, Duck, had been somethings breakfast they learned quickly mr fox won’t swim to the middle of the pond. Mr fox is not my favorite. I do not like mr fox.
LOVE MAKING: My drake breeds heavily from about March-July with his ladies. They swim in circles in the pond with torpedo force, bob their heads, and spread their wings to show off.

EGG LAYING/NESTING: first time mothers are not very good mothers. It’s a learning experience for them. And they make lots of mistakes. My two female ducks in the beginning were sharing one nest. By the time the “clutch” was ready to go through incubation the poor girl had 30 eggs under her, and one of them wasn’t holding up her end, meaning only one duck would incubate. Interestingly enough, I did not know they would share a nest. Another mistake is they were laying in December and started incubation during winter when there was lots of frost on the ground. It was getting down to the 20’s here - once I found the nest, (in the long grass a few inches from the ponds edge) there were about 32 eggs and I had to make the call to pull the eggs to give the potential ducklings a fighting chance. It didn’t make sense to watch them hatch only to freeze. My end game was to just let the circle of life be as natural as possible - so there was no duckling house in preparation. The next egg laying process was just as stressful. I would find nests everywhere on my property with three or four in them and then abandoned. There are many reasons why Duck and Duck did this, so I can’t say for sure. Sometimes their nests just didn’t suit them anymore. A few times I had a lone egg in the middle of my yard. Finally duck decided to make a separate nest in the pampas grass about 200 feet from my pond, and the other Duck made one by the wall of my shed surrounded by long wheat grass. Interestingly - duck laid about ten eggs in Ducks nest by the shed then abandoned it to lay nine eggs and call that clutch to incubate in her nest by the pampas grass, so again, the poor girl by the shed had 25 eggs to incubate. Hers plus her sisters. I pulled a few because it was physically impossible for her to efficiently incubate that many. They both started incubation about one month apart, which was good for Goose because he was a bit lost without at least one female there with him. Pampas grass hatched first. She led them safely to my pond after about 12 hours of them slowly hatching one by one. They lived for one month until mr fox came over to visit with them. Shed nest was almost ready to hatch when a possum came and raided her nest and ate almost every single egg. Stupid possum. I saved a few to try to incubate myself with little to no equipment. I wasn’t prepared to incubate eggs. Just a heat lamp and water dish for humidity. I also could not determine how long they had been sitting in my yard, they were cold to the touch. They may have gotten too warm with my underprepared incubation station. Some eggs started “leaking” which could mean there was a bacterial infection inside which would eventually cause the eggs to explode. No thanks. They were thrown out.
We are back down to three adult ducks and as I type this now, Duck laid another nest under my hostas by my front door and the ducklings are emerging out of their shells - there were 11, by the morning she will have led them to my pond. I’m going to pull a few to raise indoors for a few months so mr fox won’t try to introduce them to his belly this time. They fly away when they are older when he tries to hang out with them. Ducklings, however, don’t stand a chance.

That’s my story. If you have opinions please go easy on me, I am very new to this, and I know I have made some mistakes but I continue to learn.

A few things worth mentioning. Egg size is slightly larger than a chickens and they are a turquoise color with a thicker shell than a chickens. The texture is rubbery, or waxy with a a matte finish. They are dense eggs. The yolks are larger and a deeper orange. The male duck sometimes gets aggressive with ducklings but behaves himself mostly. Once there was only one duckling left he became even more aggressive and I almost separated him before mr fox claimed the duckling. I advice strongly against tampering with nests or letting the females see you messing with their nests. They will abandon if anything seems off. Ducks have very good memories and will hold a grudge against you if you do something they don’t enjoy. Since my ducks are so wild, they do not let me touch, pet, or pick them up. I tried once with Duck and she doesn’t let me get very close anymore. The most they let me do is eat from my hand. Drakes molt. Shed feathers. They aren’t sick, they are just growing new feathers. I feed them flock raiser and they enjoy food found in the wild. Chickens and ducks are not friends if not raised together but nothing scary goes down. My ducks have made several nests through the year. I read mallards only have one clutch per year but mine have had two each. They will lay eggs until a certain point, 13 or so eggs, then stop laying and sit on them until hatched. I don’t know if they are still laying every day as they are very secretive egg layers. But I think they lay periodically throughout the year. There was a few times Duck had left her ducklings alone and vulnerable in the morning for an hour and I can only reasonably think she would do this to continue laying eggs in the grass. At one point my ducklings got lost but came back.

Here’s a photo dump for ya! These photos are from most recent to latest .

I love Duck, Duck, and Goose. Hope I helped any newbie out there.

*UPDATE. Looks like nine of the 11 made it. I set my alarm around five in the morning to try to watch them make the journey to my pond... but I slept through it. Anyway, there are nine ducklings there. And wouldn’t you know it, two eggs left in the nest. So if this happens to you. Duck has good instincts and it’s usually for a reason. Unless you can feel the egg moving around or you can see cracks and movement I would say to toss them. You can be absolutely sure by doing a candle test (I use my iPhone because it’s the 21st century) put the egg on whatever your light source is in a dark room and spin it around to identify what’s going on in your egg. One of the eggs I didn’t want to crack open because it looked like there was a lot of liquid and blood The other one was partially formed hardened with a little blood. A million reasons why they didn’t make it. I’m no eggspert but there is a lot of good info online about eggs. Just not domestic mallard nest behavior.


July 16th-
I pulled two ducklings from the nine and Duck. She was PO’d. And that’s an understatement. After my heart was crushed from doing this and watching her scream, searching for them while they howled back, I’ve set them in a tote with heat lamp and water dish with food. They are very stressed, I noticed the only thing that helps them lower their stress is covering them with a towel and putting a lot of pressure on them while holding them. My guess is this simulates Duck when she’s putting them to sleep sitting on top of them with her wings extended. Day one complete. One of them is more calm than the other. Both bills have different color markings. And one is both smaller and darker than the other. I’ll keep updating. This is kind of nice to journal for my records, this is the first successful year of two clutch hatches of many more to come, and my second time raising ducks but this is my first coming from my own ducks. EXCITING!!! Plus I’m hoping to help any newbie’s out there!!! Added new photos of ducklings sleeping and one popping out of her bed for a glamour shot with me

I skim read some of this so forgive me if I missed it if you already mentioned-
You say they commonly sleep on the bank or middle of the pond, and about the fox- do you mean at night or just in the daytime?
Also you should alwaaaays candle before tossing an egg- you cant always feel movement-
I'm really interested by this and would love mallards some day so I'll come back for a more thorough read later!!

 

[The Nut Quacker]

I skim read some of this so forgive me if I missed it if you already mentioned-
You say they commonly sleep on the bank or middle of the pond, and about the fox- do you mean at night or just in the daytime?
Also you should alwaaaays candle before tossing an egg- you cant always feel movement-
I'm really interested by this and would love mallards some day so I'll come back for a more thorough read later!!

Good to know! Mr fox comes usually visits in the early morning. Sometimes at night. They avoid him by sleeping in the middle of our pond.
Mallards live for a long time, so be sure you’re into it!

 

[raingarden]

oops sorry, missed the how well part. Im not sure I can say how well they fly because they don’t go very far. Never more than about 60 feet up and around my property. It’s awesome watching them fly around my house in the morning. They will do laps. Or fly from my back porch to my pond, which is about two acres in between. They have never flown farther than that though. I love when it’s around April and March, wild mallards come visit my mallards then. The wild mallards stay for a few days then fly away.

You're lucky to hve them.

 

[swampfox440]

Hi, Welcome to BYC! pleased to meet you and thanks for joining us. It seems to me you have done a good job with you research. Enjoy your ducks and have fun.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I also have Mallards. I got my two gals from Metzer farms. I wanted them pinioned so that they would not fly off but they forgot to do it so I had to clip their wings for the first couple of years. My one gal had her first nest and hatched out 11 ducklings. All survived and I was able to find them homes. The homes that they went to lost every one of them due to them flying away. Second batch of 6 went to a friends home and he had other ducklings and they have stayed with him. My hens are very vocal and I just recently separated my Drake from them to keep them more quiet as he loves to bother them breeding them this time of year. My Khaki Campbell Drake also got separated as he did too. Yours are beautiful and I am glad that they stay with you. They can fly away though if they decide to. Before I clipped mines feathers my one went quite far but a neighbor knew it was mine and returned it. I was lucky to get it back.

 

[raingarden]

My favorite birds are the ones that can go where they want but live here because they like it. Sometimes poultry don't express their gratitude very well so a volunteer is refreshing.