Missing eggs

[Quackers08]

I have 6 call ducks and all of the females that are laying are laying in the same nest. At first the nest was gaining at least 1 egg everyday. When i had roughly 21 eggs, i noticed the amount of eggs decreasing down to roughly 17 and there was yolk and broken egg all over the nest.

Today i counted the eggs again and there are now 24. Does this mean the ducks dont like the eggs anymore or thought there was something wrong with the eggs they have eaten? One set of my chickens eat all of their eggs too and on a rare chance i find an egg that hasnt been eaten it is all covered in scratches etc. Sometimes they take it out into the run and 'play football' with it or throw the shell around before eating it. Any help is much appreciated Thanks all!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have 6 call ducks and all of the females that are laying are laying in the same nest. At first the nest was gaining at least 1 egg everyday. When i had roughly 21 eggs, i noticed the amount of eggs decreasing down to roughly 17 and there was yolk and broken egg all over the nest.

Today i counted the eggs again and there are now 24. Does this mean the ducks dont like the eggs anymore or thought there was something wrong with the eggs they have eaten? One set of my chickens eat all of their eggs too and on a rare chance i find an egg that hasnt been eaten it is all covered in scratches etc. Sometimes they take it out into the run and 'play football' with it or throw the shell around before eating it. Any help is much appreciated Thanks all!

For one thing to have that many eggs in one nest there are bound to be broken eggs, Are you wanting them to brood is that why you have left so many eggs?
I'm sorry but I had to laugh out loud at your description of the chickens playing football with the chicken eggs, sometimes than means lack of protein when you have egg eaters

 

[Quackers08]

I have just let nature take its course so to speak with the amount of eggs. My neighbour had around 30 eggs under a call duck before so i thought it would be okay. Please tell me if thats wrong though. How do i add more protein into their diets?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have just let nature take its course so to speak with the amount of eggs. My neighbour had around 30 eggs under a call duck before so i thought it would be okay. Please tell me if thats wrong though. How do i add more protein into their diets?

That's just too many eggs for one small call duck to even think about sitting, if your wanting one to sit eggs then you take out the oldest ones and leave a reasonable amount in there for one to sit. the size of a call duck would probably be less than 12 . The way to tell the oldest is by marking them you can use numbers or x's what ever but a good way to tell your oldest, then when your duck begins to sit and you want to lower the amt even more you can take out more, they won't begin to develop till she begins to sit 24/7. also you could move some of the eggs to a new nest and see if that makes a difference. Protein can be given by adding plain yogurt, dried or fresh meal worms, crickets etc. to their diet. in other words meat is one way. My ducks and chickens love dried mealworms. scrambled eggs also. you say your neighbor had 30 eggs under a call duck did they hatch?

 

[Quackers08]

Yes most of them hatched and i might take all of the eggs out and let them start over because the nest just looks trampled and ignored now. Then i will write numbers on them so i know which the first ones are to remove them. How long will it take fror them to sit? Its been about a month of laying so far

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yes most of them hatched and i might take all of the eggs out and let them start over because the nest just looks trampled and ignored now. Then i will write numbers on them so i know which the first ones are to remove them. How long will it take fror them to sit? Its been about a month of laying so far

If you start over you'll have fresh eggs to start with which will be good, then you just have to wait it out and hope one of your girls goes broody, make sure they have a nice safe place in which to lay several of them so they won't pile the eggs into the same nest. and to maybe help get them started laying in more than one nest place several eggs in other nest boxes or what ever you have for them to lay in. My girls like it quiet and out of the way when brooding, I have one in a Large dog crate right now. inside the goose house.

 

[Quackers08]

I have a small rabbit hutch in the duck house and there is a small space next to that and the wall so there is 3 potential nests in a row, them just seem to prefer to lay in the one area next to the hutch. My last set of ducklings were hatched in the hutch