Mallards laying eggs

[SarahandDucks]

Help-
Every few years we get some mallards through the DNR to raise & release. My 7 current mallards are about 3 months old.

Today my neighbor and I found FOUR eggs: two in her backyard, one in mine, and one in our actual (tiny) duckpond.

We have never found duck eggs before.
What should I expect?
Will it keep happening?
Can I eat them?
Are they fertilized??
Do the mallards need a nest?
What should I do? What shouldn't I do??

(attached pic is from earlier)

 

[Lenny loves chickens]

Help-
Every few years we get some mallards through the DNR to raise & release. My 7 current mallards are about 3 months old.

Today my neighbor and I found FOUR eggs: two in her backyard, one in mine, and one in our actual (tiny) duckpond.

We have never found duck eggs before.
What should I expect?
Will it keep happening?
Can I eat them?
Are they fertilized??
Do the mallards need a nest?
What should I do? What shouldn't I do??

(attached pic is from earlier)

DNR gives you mallards to raise what state are you in?

 

[SarahandDucks]

DNR gives you mallards to raise what state are you in?

Minnesota. It’s a weird receipt thing. My grandpa did it, so that’s how I got hooked.

 

[Callender Girl]

My experience is with runner ducks, not mallards. However, duck eggs are perfectly edible and nutritious. Once my girls start laying, they keep laying -- until their winter break.

I toss out the eggs my ducks lay in their kiddie pool; I suspect the dirty water -- and it's always dirty because they are ducks -- seeps through the protective bloom and contaminates the eggs.

Over the years, some of my girls have liked a nest pad in a small dog house, but most prefer to find their own nest.

Currently, two like to put eggs underneath a rose bush (probably just to laugh as I try to extract them), two like to make a nest in a pile of lava rocks where they sit bill-to-tail with each other (???) and one seems to just randomly drop eggs on the ground, wherever she is. When they just can't wait for me to open the shelter, it's not unusual to find an egg or two on the shelter floor in the morning.

And, I think the whole DNR giving you mallards to raise is one more thing to like about the great state of Minnesota!

 

[Lenny loves chickens]

Minnesota. It’s a weird receipt thing. My grandpa did it, so that’s how I got hooked.

I thinks that's a really cool thing

 

[SarahandDucks]

My experience is with runner ducks, not mallards. However, duck eggs are perfectly edible and nutritious. Once my girls start laying, they keep laying -- until their winter break.

I toss out the eggs my ducks lay in their kiddie pool; I suspect the dirty water -- and it's always dirty because they are ducks -- seeps through the protective bloom and contaminates the eggs.

Over the years, some of my girls have liked a nest pad in a small dog house, but most prefer to find their own nest.

Currently, two like to put eggs underneath a rose bush (probably just to laugh as I try to extract them), two like to make a nest in a pile of lava rocks where they sit bill-to-tail with each other (???) and one seems to just randomly drop eggs on the ground, wherever she is. When they just can't wait for me to open the shelter, it's not unusual to find an egg or two on the shelter floor in the morning.

And, I think the whole DNR giving you mallards to raise is one more thing to like about the great state of Minnesota!

But will there be a little duck fetus/zygote inside? I have reoccurring nightmares that I crack open a store bought egg for breakfast and find a beak.

 

[SarahandDucks]

My experience is with runner ducks, not mallards. However, duck eggs are perfectly edible and nutritious. Once my girls start laying, they keep laying -- until their winter break.

I toss out the eggs my ducks lay in their kiddie pool; I suspect the dirty water -- and it's always dirty because they are ducks -- seeps through the protective bloom and contaminates the eggs.

Over the years, some of my girls have liked a nest pad in a small dog house, but most prefer to find their own nest.

Currently, two like to put eggs underneath a rose bush (probably just to laugh as I try to extract them), two like to make a nest in a pile of lava rocks where they sit bill-to-tail with each other (???) and one seems to just randomly drop eggs on the ground, wherever she is. When they just can't wait for me to open the shelter, it's not unusual to find an egg or two on the shelter floor in the morning.

And, I think the whole DNR giving you mallards to raise is one more thing to like about the great state of Minnesota!

I thought this duck was injured or something. I tore up my deck floorboards to get her(?) out. Man, was I wrong.

 

[Callender Girl]

What a devoted mama you are to your ducks! I admire your dedication to your "kids," although I suspect the ducky wasn't pleased to have you interrupting her.

 

[ruthhope]

But will there be a little duck fetus/zygote inside? I have reoccurring nightmares that I crack open a store bought egg for breakfast and find a beak.

The eggs when first laid are just like store bought hens' eggs inside. The embryo doesn't start to develop until the mother duck starts brooding them. My son's ducks are well behaved [with one exception and even she is getting better] and lay in their nest boxes in the coop. We dont eat any eggs we find in the garden as we don't know for how long they have been there. But we have found none outside the coop for months. One of my son's ducks was making a lot of noise late morning last week, and so I picked her up out of the coop and brought her over to sit on the back step with me. She settled down immediately [she is a big one for shouting and for wanting attention] and she promptly laid an egg at my feet. I was petting her and didn't know she had had done it, but I was with a friend who had come to meet my son's ducks wo saw the egg appear. So there is the possibility that this little minx will occasionally lay in the garden after the ducks have been let out of the coop to free range. But there is also a ferral rooster who I think would soon find and eat any eggs left aroudn the garden.

If you are concerned about an egg having a viable embryo, you might candle it. I haven't done that as we don't want to raise any more ducklings

 

[SarahandDucks]

The eggs when first laid are just like store bought hens' eggs inside. The embryo doesn't start to develop until the mother duck starts brooding them. My son's ducks are well behaved [with one exception and even she is getting better] and lay in their nest boxes in the coop. We dont eat any eggs we find in the garden as we don't know for how long they have been there. But we have found none outside the coop for months. One of my son's ducks was making a lot of noise late morning last week, and so I picked her up out of the coop and brought her over to sit on the back step with me. She settled down immediately [she is a big one for shouting and for wanting attention] and she promptly laid an egg at my feet. I was petting her and didn't know she had had done it, but I was with a friend who had come to meet my son's ducks wo saw the egg appear. So there is the possibility that this little minx will occasionally lay in the garden after the ducks have been let out of the coop to free range. But there is also a ferral rooster who I think would soon find and eat any eggs left aroudn the garden.

If you are concerned about an egg having a viable embryo, you might candle it. I haven't done that as we don't want to raise any more ducklings

OMFG. Are you telling me the eggs I eat from the grocery store COULD have a chick inside of them??

I thought they were just a monthly shedding of an unfertilized egg.