new to ducks, need some answers please!!!

[bmdakk]

I have a pair of rouen ducks, (M/F) he is a couple years old and she is about a year old. about a week ago I found 2 freshly laid eggs on the ground under the chicken coop. they were duck eggs. so I got them and put them in my incubator, cause the temps outside were -0. The next day I found 3 more in a box I had put in there for them to huddle up in. I took those and put them in the incubator. that was about 9 days ago and I candled them yesterday and the are all 5 viable. The other day I noticed there were two more eggs back in the same box. I decided to let her set those and see what happens. she has not made any effort to set on the nest for 3 days. I never see her on it or around it, The male will chase the chicken away but he dont go in the box either.

Sorry for the long winded speech, but my question is , will ducks wait till they.have a bunch of eggs before the set on the nest?


I pulled the 3 new eggs out and put them in the incubator this evening cause I went out after dark and she was setting 20 feet away from the nest. Its like she doesnt know to set on them. should I just have left them in with her? Never raised any chicks or ducks for that matter from an egg so Im kinda green. Thanks in advance.

 

[needlessjunk]

I have a pair of rouen ducks, (M/F) he is a couple years old and she is about a year old. about a week ago I found 2 freshly laid eggs on the ground under the chicken coop. they were duck eggs. so I got them and put them in my incubator, cause the temps outside were -0. The next day I found 3 more in a box I had put in there for them to huddle up in. I took those and put them in the incubator. that was about 9 days ago and I candled them yesterday and the are all 5 viable. The other day I noticed there were two more eggs back in the same box. I decided to let her set those and see what happens. she has not made any effort to set on the nest for 3 days. I never see her on it or around it, The male will chase the chicken away but he dont go in the box either.

 Sorry for the long winded speech, but my question is , will ducks wait till they.have a bunch of eggs before the set on the nest?[COLOR=141823] [/COLOR]


[COLOR=141823]I pulled the 3 new eggs out and put them in the incubator this evening cause I went out after dark and she was setting 20 feet away from the nest. Its like she doesnt know to set on them. should I just have left them in with her? Never raised any chicks or ducks for that matter from an egg so Im kinda green. Thanks in advance.[/COLOR]

She may be building a nest and she may sit when she has what she thinks is the right number. You really should not add more eggs to an incubator once you have ones ready going because you will need to go into lock down at some point and drop the humidity. That can hurt the developing eggs. Ducks usually only lay one egg a day so it sounds like she is hiding them from you if you collect eggs everyday.

 

[Orca5094]

She may be building a nest and she may sit when she has what she thinks is the right number. You really should not add more eggs to an incubator once you have ones ready going because you will need to go into lock down at some point and drop the humidity. That can hurt the developing eggs. Ducks usually only lay one egg a day so it sounds like she is hiding them from you if you collect eggs everyday.

X2! Ducks don't sit on their eggs until they are finished laying and have a full clutch, so taking them away while she's laying will just encourage her to keep laying and not sit on them. And yeah, it's not a good idea to put eggs into an incubator at different times. You will have a staggered hatch (don't hatch at the same time), which is incredibly difficult to manage properly. Plus you'll end up with ducklings of all different ages, which don't typically mesh well since they grow so quickly. A duckling just a few days older than another can be a big bully and prevent the younger ones from eating, etc.

Usually if you're going to incubate eggs you'll want to gather them for 7-10 days and store them in a cool room, then put them all into the incubator together so they hatch at the same time. That is what the momma ducks do.