OMG I am so excited !!!!!!

[ProudRedneck]

Are you letting her hatch it, or will it be omelette?

Grats, btw! I remember how I felt the first time I found an egg from ours last Spring!

I can't bring myself to eat her first one. It sounded like such an awesome idea at the beginning but I've gotten so attached that I would correlate eating one of her eggs to eating her. It makes me want to cry thinking about it. Perhaps if/when the excitement of her laying eggs wears off then maybe but I'll have to cross that road later. I would like to at least find out if they are fertile or not. Daisy is a SA drake and I've read that the fertility rate of Muscovy eggs with Mallard-derived ducks is low. If it's not fertile, then yeah I guess I'll be ok with it being eaten.

 

[ProudRedneck]

Hanging out with your ducks should be very theraputic -- not just watching them on a camera, but being in yoru garden and sitting with them. They are such a lovely couple! I hang out with mine every morning and it gives me a boost for the rest of the day.

One of my son's ducks, Mop Head, came on a sleep over and ended up sleeping in my Florida room as my ducks were mean to her. She is such a character and she tried so hard to be friendly. When I saw them excluding her from food in the coop, I brought her straight in and made her a bed in a children's wading pool with pine shavings. She rewarded me with and egg in the morning and I couldn't eat it!! I can eat the eggs when I don't know who has laid them -- at my son's they often all lay in the same nesting box and so even when there are three eggs, we can't be certain who laid which egg. But having an egg that Mop Head laid in my Florida room, no I just couldn't do it!! On another more recent occasion, I was at my son's house sitting and petting Mop Head on his back steps. I had no idea she was doing it, but she laid an egg at my feet. That egg went in the basket on my son's counter top as I couldn't eat it although she laid it for me!

Awwww that's one of the most precious stories I've heard

Yeah, I check-in & watch through the camera when they are in the run but they are only in it during the night. They are out and roaming all day starting at 8:00 am and get locked back up for the night anywhere in between 5:30 - 6:30, depending on when they come asking for dinner or I see they keep going back and forth to their run ready for bed. I am outside either sitting on a pool lounge chaise or on a blanket in the yard with them if they are out. There is a break in their free ranging of a couple hours between 11am-1 pm when they are showing they are sleepy and ready for a nap in which I put them back in the run so they can sleep with no worries of predators and it gives me an opportunity to come inside the house for a little while. Otherwise, they are NEVER unsupervised.

 

[Canadian Wind]

It's the same, but you can't right after it's laid. I think that's where the two of you got confused.

 

[ProudRedneck]

Daffy just laid her second egg at 11:51 am and I recorded the whole thing !!!!!! The video will be up in a moment.

 

[ProudRedneck]

What a good girl!

Also love that bell toy.

Best $9 spent...keeps Daisy entertained and lets him release some of that testosterone pent up. He is ALWAYS using it and at night I can hear the bell in the living room when he really gets going.

Da

 

[ProudRedneck]

Egg #3 - Daffy has laid her eggs pretty much around the same time of day so far and I have learned her behavior right before she lays where she will go back and forth to where she wants to lay for about 30 mins prior. She kept going to the back left of the property, underneath our elephant ears this morning and sure enough, that's where she laid her 3rd egg.

Needless to say I immediately picked it up and put it in the house with the other two, made sure she knew where it was, and kept her in the run briefly to give her a chance to go check on the egg a couple of times before letting her right back out.

 

[ProudRedneck]

Did you know Elephant ears are poisonous? I had to get rid of my fox glove because it is poisonous to my birds.

Yes, I did discover that in researching months ago but...because I read that ducks have a natural instinct not to eat poisonous plants, I supervised to see if they would attempt to eat them before ripping them out. Believe me when I say, at the beginning of my research I was ready to rip every plant, shrub, weed, and grass out of my yard to make sure that they stayed safe is an understatement LOL. However, I have watched them bite onto a leaf once, shake their head like it was sour, and never have touched them again. Perhaps I am getting lucky so far but I am still planning to rip them out due to plans of building a she-shed in that spot.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Being born and raised in Florida Elephant ears were everywhere. And we had one in our yard growing up my brother and a neighbor's kids tried chewing on a leaf and it burned the inside of their mouths. That was so long ago but I still remember this. I know mine will try to nibble different things out in their fenced property but I didn't want to take any chances when it came to fox glove.

 

[ProudRedneck]

Introducing Egg #5 laid around 2:45pm today

 

[Miss Lydia]

Introducing Egg #5 laid around 2:45pm today
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Shes on a roll. Well actually she is on bedding but boy she is on a roll. lol