rouen duck breeding

[benjamer87]

i have 3 rouen ducks, two of them being drakes. will i have to seperate the hen from the other 2 drakes in order for her to nest or will they be just fine. ive heard of male chickens not letting hens nest so they can keep breeding, so i didnt know if the case was similar with ducks. any info will be appreciated!

 

[Quacking]

I used to have Rouens a few years ago but after issues with fertility I decided to swap them out for a different breed. You may find that you would need to separate one of the drakes before nesting just to ensure that your duck isnt overbred because of the ratio you have. I had exhibition birds and found that due to their weight and huge keels, it was difficult for the males to mate effectively with my females. Having two drakes may be better for ensuring fertility in such a heavy breed of duck, but your female will have to deal with mating from two drakes which may ultimately lead to her being very stressed or injured which could in turn effect her laying ability.

 

[Daisy Duck]

I had a drake and a female rouen who are about 2 years old. Eggs daily are great, we typically collect for eating/baking, etc.
However, recently a fox got into our pen and took our drake. We know our hen only had 2 eggs layed in the nest, we check every day. So our drake was gone, but somehow she laid an additional 7 eggs and since we felt bad about her being alone we did not collect the eggs and let her hatch them, figuring we would get one or two ducklings and the rest would not hatch. However all 7 hatched, so can a female duck keep the fertilization in her body and use it at any time? or did a wild duck come in and fertilze our eggs? We know she only had 2 eggs in that nest, she has been known to lay one in am and one pm once in a great while but not too often. She is an excellent egg producer and a fabulous mother duck. This will be her 2nd brood. The first brood was 9 ducklings last year, all survived we found homes for all of them. But we can't figure out how more than 2 eggs got fertilized, can anyone help with that question?

 

[ducklover87]

i have 3 rouen ducks, two of them being drakes. will i have to seperate the hen from the other 2 drakes in order for her to nest or will they be just fine. ive heard of male chickens not letting hens nest so they can keep breeding, so i didnt know if the case was similar with ducks. any info will be appreciated!

Like with most domestic breeds of duck you might have to separate when a female goes to nest. See if they bug her at all if she's sitting on the nest if so than separate the males from the female. I'm assuming your going to have to do this with you only having one female as they will try to mate with her.

Edited to add: you might even have to separate the boys from each other as they might start to fight.

 

[ducklover87]

I had a drake and a female rouen who are about 2 years old.  Eggs daily are great, we typically collect for eating/baking, etc.
However, recently a fox got into our pen and took our drake.  We know our hen only had 2 eggs layed in the nest, we check every day.  So our drake was gone, but somehow she laid an additional 7 eggs and since we felt bad about her being alone we did not collect the eggs and let her hatch them, figuring we would get one or two ducklings and  the rest would not hatch.  However all 7 hatched, so can a female duck keep the fertilization in her body and use it at any time?  or did a wild duck come in and fertilze our eggs?  We know she only had 2 eggs in that nest, she has been known to lay one in am and one pm once in a great while but not too often.  She is an excellent egg producer and a fabulous mother duck.  This will be her 2nd brood. The first brood was 9 ducklings last year, all survived we found homes for all of them.   But we can't figure out how more than 2 eggs got fertilized, can anyone help with that question?

Fertility in eggs can last from 2 to even 3 weeks after the last mating. So even though your drake was gone her eggs were still fertilized by him.

 

[Daisy Duck]

Oh, Thank you, that so explains it. Great News, our drake was such a wonderful duck, so we feel good knowing these duckies are his.

 

[ducklover87]

Oh, Thank you, that so explains it.  Great News, our drake was such a wonderful duck, so we feel good knowing these duckies are his.

 

That's great! Hopefully you'll get another nice drake out of this bunch

 

[wizzardlevel9]

I had a drake and a female rouen who are about 2 years old. Eggs daily are great, we typically collect for eating/baking, etc.
However, recently a fox got into our pen and took our drake. We know our hen only had 2 eggs layed in the nest, we check every day. So our drake was gone, but somehow she laid an additional 7 eggs and since we felt bad about her being alone we did not collect the eggs and let her hatch them, figuring we would get one or two ducklings and the rest would not hatch. However all 7 hatched, so can a female duck keep the fertilization in her body and use it at any time? or did a wild duck come in and fertilze our eggs? We know she only had 2 eggs in that nest, she has been known to lay one in am and one pm once in a great while but not too often. She is an excellent egg producer and a fabulous mother duck. This will be her 2nd brood. The first brood was 9 ducklings last year, all survived we found homes for all of them. But we can't figure out how more than 2 eggs got fertilized, can anyone help with that question?

Yes. I'm not sure exactly how long (its not exact), but yes, the female can store sperm for probably 2 weeks or a little more. In addition, laid eggs are fertilized long earlier in the process from a few days to a week before they are laid. With storing sperm for 2 or weeks and then a week to lay, this means that is possible for to get laid fertile eggs that was from breeding close to a month earlier.