The eggs are somehow alive?

[CastleCoop]

So we have a female ancona duck who is broody. She is sitting on a nest of 7 eggs, but the problem is that the best is outside. We put all of our ducks inside at night, and every night I lift her out of her nest and put her into the duck house for the night. In the morning, she goes straight to her nest when she gets let out. We already have a lot of ducks, but I let her keep the eggs because I assumed that she wouldn't be able to hatch them since she leaves them at night. However, yesterday I was curious and candled one of the eggs, only to see veins and movement inside. The egg was somehow alive and growing?? How is this possible? Will the eggs end up hatching?

 

[Pollo Blanco]

Interesting that they can sit overnight like that and keep going

 

[PlentifulPrairie]

Yeah. I've been reading up on egg incubation and natural egg hatching.i did come across that a duck eggs can survive 7 days without it's momma sitting on them, in certain outside temps.. sorry can't remember the temp requirements.

 

[Everose]

If you let her keep the eggs they may die and her broody behavior may continue even though they won't hatch. It's pretty cool that they're still going, could her nest be moved?

 

[Pollo Blanco]

Maybe a heating pad or a reptile heater?

I had considered the heating pad for one of my ducks outside nest

Half tempted to let one of the nests in my coop run it's course. It stays pretty warm in there during the day.

But, at the end of the day, the bosslady already thinks that I have enough ducks!

 

[CastleCoop]

If you let her keep the eggs they may die and her broody behavior may continue even though they won't hatch. It's pretty cool that they're still going, could her nest be moved?

I'm not sure, would she be able to move with the nest? We have 2 nests inside that are not being incubated, would she get them mixed up?

 

[Everose]

I'm not sure, would she be able to move with the nest? We have 2 nests inside that are not being incubated, would she get them mixed up?

Maybe put her and the nest into a dog crate that has a locking door on it and keep her locked in there for a few hours. If she is kept within the vicinity of another nest she may get confused but I don't think that's likely if she sits on her own nest for a while.

Moving her from the rest of the ducks completely would be best because sometimes other flock members will brutally murder the ducklings.

Ducks are easily broken up according to most duck keepers but she seems pretty determined (the ducklings too) and I think she has a better odds than most ducks at remaining broody after the nest is moved.

Just an FYI, I've never had a broody duck but I have read a ton about broodies and I am specifically raising silver appleyard ducks for the purpose of having broodies.

@Demintion, would you have any advice?

 

[Demintion]

I just had three silver appleyard go broody this year, and I've heard ancona ducks can be pretty stubborn with brooding. Our ducks knew exactly what nest was who's. We had two who nested right beside each other that I had to moved. It took them about two to maybe three hours to come back to where the nest is. But each hen went back to the nest she had originally built. If you're worried about, just remove the eggs from the other nests until she is back on hers. If you keep those eggs by her, she may end up stealing them so mark her eggs so you know hers from newly laid eggs.

We never moved ours from the flock, but is a good idea to separate the drakes during the last few days of incubation. Or whenever you see the first duckling, remove the drakes. Your broody will do wonders protecting her ducklings from other hens. Unless your hen does what one of mind did and decided to kill her entire nest. (If I hadn't prevented it she would have succeeded.)

The reason I didnt move mine from the rest of flock was because I wanted the ducklings integrated in with their flock mates thanks to their moms. Just keep a really close eye on what's going on within your flock.