The need to knows on duck laying?

[CherryCord]

So my Pekin duck Sweetpea just layed her very first egg this morning. She is about 7 months old. I keep all my ducks in a big pen. I hadn't noticed her looking for a place to next until about a week ago. Yesterday I noticed she spent a lot of time in the corner if the pen and assumed she wanted to nest. Last night she layed her first egg in a different place, a place it could get stepped on by the others. So I put straw in the corner of the pen and moved the egg. She sat on it for a while but hasn't in the last hour.

So how often should she sit the egg?
Is it normal for her to only lay one her first time?
Will she possibly need guidance on how often to sit it?

She's my first adult hen so she has no older ducks to learn from. I also don't know a lot on egg hatching, and I don't want to incubate the eggs myself. I don't even have equipment for it.
I have raised all my ducks from a few days to about a week old.
If anyone knows a website or book that teaches everything to know about this, that would be AMAZING.

Links involving what I did and her laying the egg below:

Sweetpea laying her egg:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=3561977577276275&id=100003922033680

Finding and moving the egg:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=3561965357277497&id=100003922033680

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have Pekin Ducks. Current flock in my Sig, below. My ducks will lay one egg a day, like clockwork, for some number of days, then stop. At times, they would lay them all in the same nest, and I briefly had one duck sitting all of them for most of a month, before she abandoned the whole lot.

You don't want to know how many eggs that was. Then they all stopped. For a while. Before all starting up again. None of the ducks has seemed to go broody since.

Most days, all of my ducks will lay eggs in the same spot. Some days, they choose individual spots, for no reason I can discern. Corners and walls are popular places. So is the middle of the run, directly in front of the gate, where chickens, ducks, and even goats can step on them. Sometimes, they change spots at completely random.

Oh, and mine free range acres, so if they don't deposit them overnight in the run, they can be anywhere - most often under a bush or shrub, preferably one with thorns. Where they forget it. Once, in a pond - or perhaps at the edge of a pond, where it subsequently rolled in.

Ducks are stupid. Pekins, apparently, particularly so.

 

[CherryCord]

I have Pekin Ducks. Current flock in my Sig, below. My ducks will lay one egg a day, like clockwork, for some number of days, then stop. At times, they would lay them all in the same nest, and I briefly had one duck sitting all of them for most of a month, before she abandoned the whole lot.

You don't want to know how many eggs that was. Then they all stopped. For a while. Before all starting up again. None of the ducks has seemed to go broody since.

Most days, all of my ducks will lay eggs in the same spot. Some days, they choose individual spots, for no reason I can discern. Corners and walls are popular places. So is the middle of the run, directly in front of the gate, where chickens, ducks, and even goats can step on them. Sometimes, they change spots at completely random.

Oh, and mine free range acres, so if they don't deposit them overnight in the run, they can be anywhere - most often under a bush or shrub, preferably one with thorns. Where they forget it. Once, in a pond - or perhaps at the edge of a pond, where it subsequently rolled in.

Ducks are stupid. Pekins, apparently, particularly so.

Ahaha! Pekins are also really clumsy. So she either will or she won't sit on it. If she does, do you know how often she should? Or does it just depend.
Also if she doesn't sit on it, at what point should I take the egg away, and at what point is it no longer good to eat?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I collect my duck eggs daily, we eat them. At the time, I had over 150 chicken eggs collected and a dozen duck eggs in the incubator (takes 4 weeks to incubate), so I had five hens laying eggs, most days, in the same nest, then a second, right next to the first, for most of a month.

In theory, a couple days is fine, they stay good without refrigeration, if the bloom hasn't been washed off, at reasonable temperatures for some time - weeks, in fact. Most of the world still stores their eggs on the counter - its why, when you make a French recipe, you are supposed to bring your eggs up to room temp first - it makes a difference. Once the bloom has been washed off, or they've been refrigerated, the clock is started and they need to be kept under refrigeration or they will go over in something less than two weeks, and a degradation in quality can be seen in half that (less upright yolk, runnier white).

Mine tend to lay places where my clay soils discolor the egg rapidly, and hold moisture - so its important to me that I get them cleaned and refrigerated quickly. I collect eggs four times daily, in fact (almost exclusively from the chickens - since I can't find duck eggs in the pasture during the day, and when i do, i don't know how long they have been there...)

As to how to make a duck hen broody? or not? Still figuring that out myself.

 

[CherryCord]

I collect my duck eggs daily, we eat them. At the time, I had over 150 chicken eggs collected and a dozen duck eggs in the incubator (takes 4 weeks to incubate), so I had five hens laying eggs, most days, in the same nest, then a second, right next to the first, for most of a month.

In theory, a couple days is fine, they stay good without refrigeration, if the bloom hasn't been washed off, at reasonable temperatures for some time - weeks, in fact. Most of the world still stores their eggs on the counter - its why, when you make a French recipe, you are supposed to bring your eggs up to room temp first - it makes a difference. Once the bloom has been washed off, or they've been refrigerated, the clock is started and they need to be kept under refrigeration or they will go over in something less than two weeks, and a degradation in quality can be seen in half that (less upright yolk, runnier white).

Mine tend to lay places where my clay soils discolor the egg rapidly, and hold moisture - so its important to me that I get them cleaned and refrigerated quickly. I collect eggs four times daily, in fact (almost exclusively from the chickens - since I can't find duck eggs in the pasture during the day, and when i do, i don't know how long they have been there...)

As to how to make a duck hen broody? or not? Still figuring that out myself.

What is the bloom?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

The bloom is a coating poultry place on the egg while laying - it helps to seal the pores of the egg shell, preventing "bad stuff" (qv) from getting in, while slowing the rate at which water escapes. If you take a fresh laid egg in your hand, still hot, seconds old, it will likely feel slightly sticky/tacky to the touch. That's the bloom, drying. If instead you grab the egg, still warm, minutes later and its dry to the touch, gently dampen it with warm water, and it feels "slimy" - again, that's the bloom, which you are now washing off. Rub gently, warm to hot (105 degree) water until its clean, then place into refrigeration immediately. At this point, refrigerate till use - there's nothing to prevent that egg from being colonized by "bad stuff".

Its why many prefer to clean their eggs with a dry cloth or towel.

I'm working on a FL Limited Poultry and Egg license, they (and the USDA) do not allow me to sell shell eggs for human consumption which have not been thoroughly cleaned, sanitized, and kept under refrigeration until delivery to the end consumer.

 

[CherryCord]

The bloom is a coating poultry place on the egg while laying - it helps to seal the pores of the egg shell, preventing "bad stuff" (qv) from getting in, while slowing the rate at which water escapes. If you take a fresh laid egg in your hand, still hot, seconds old, it will likely feel slightly sticky/tacky to the touch. That's the bloom, drying. If instead you grab the egg, still warm, minutes later and its dry to the touch, gently dampen it with warm water, and it feels "slimy" - again, that's the bloom, which you are now washing off. Rub gently, warm to hot (105 degree) water until its clean, then place into refrigeration immediately. At this point, refrigerate till use - there's nothing to prevent that egg from being colonized by "bad stuff".

Its why many prefer to clean their eggs with a dry cloth or towel.

I'm working on a FL Limited Poultry and Egg license, they (and the USDA) do not allow me to sell shell eggs for human consumption which have not been thoroughly cleaned, sanitized, and kept under refrigeration until delivery to the end consumer.

Oh okay. So is there a way to see if the bloom is there? Or is it just a given that it'll always been there unless washed off?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Oh okay. So is there a way to see if the bloom is there? Or is it just a given that it'll always been there unless washed off?

Its always there.