My Indian Runner is sat on her nest??!!

[aimiburkitt]

Hi everyone . My names Aimi and I live in England. Last year I hatched for the first time 3 Indian Runner ducks - I haven't owned any ducks previously so was very pleased when my little babies hatched!

I have two girls and one boy, they roam free around our garden during the day live in a duck house at night. All the ducks are let out at 6am ish in the morning.

Normally I have two duck eggs in the duck house which I remove every morning because I was led to believe that Indian Runners don't hatch their own eggs. Well this morning around 10.30am I could only find two if my ducks so I went on the hunt for the third one, when I found her she was in a bush sat on 4 eggs!! I really don't know what to do now? If there's 4 eggs she must have been going to lay them once she's let out at 6am in the morning for the last 4 days and now I'm worried that because I've been putting her in her house at night then at least one of the eggs has been left for three nights without my duck sitting on it. If I do leave her out over night she's at risk of the fox. The weather here at the moment is around 21degrees during the day and 8degrees at night.

Can someone please advise if these eggs have any change of hatching and if so what should I do? Do I move her best somewhere safe or wo that make her abandon them?

Thanks in advance

 

[izzyschickens]

just wait a little bit longer about an hour or so. if she is still there, that means she is brooding. when they are brooding, and if you want them to hatch you will have to make sure that she gets food and water because they usually don't eat or drink when they are really trying to hatch those eggs. when a female is brooding, she will stop laying eggs and get grouchy and protective of her eggs. so if you don't want her brooding, just take the eggs away from her and she will start laying again.

 

[aimiburkitt]

Hi. She moved off her nest when I went to find her and has waddled around the garden most of the day. She has 13 eggs in there so has been collecting them for a while! I would like them to hatch but wouldn't she need to sit on the over night too? X

 

[TLWR]

If she's spending that much time around the garden, she's not truly broody. You could leave the eggs laid in the house there instead of collecting them and she might be inclined to sit in a safe spot.
If you have foxes, do not let her sit out with the pile of eggs you found - I'd toss those.