This was unexpected! It's January AND she's still growing in her spring feathers!

[MGG]

I've read so many times that calls aren't prolific egg layers; I also throughly expected her eggs not to be at all fertile or to make it very far in incubation (she's only 7 months and it's January/February!) and this little duck has decided to not be typical!
Now, however, I have some random questions that I didn't think would come up.
1. When the more mature eggs in the incubator reach lockdown time, would it be safe to move them to an empty (clean and sanitized, of course) aquarium with a 75 to 100 watt bulb and use a small diffuser (with distilled water or regular water) to keep the humidity up and temp regulated for the hatchlings and keep it steady for the earlier stage eggs?
2. I bring them inside at night (WAY too many predators out here), and Loki lays in her little nesting box in their indoor enclosure in the mornings. I take the freshly laid egg out every morning, because she has showed zero interest in sitting in there all day. The boys, especially Cap, like to hang out in there, and one of the ducks rolled a ping pong ball I had as a toy into the box, and Cap will sit on it sometimes. Is this the safest route to prevent egg mishaps? I think it is, but my mother's endless questioning of this choice requires me to ask.
3. I have about a million more questions, but my brain is a bit overwhelmed at the moment since there are at least TEN little embryos in the incubator.

Hi again!!! I just found this thread, that's so exciting you have some babies! What do you plan on doing with them? I would stop adding duck eggs to the incubator unless you have a plan for all of those ducklings. They're going to be crazy messy and get big fast.
Young birds are perfectly capable of raising of hatching healthy babies. People usually like to wait to incubate their eggs until they're over a year though, so that their reproductive system can work out all of the kinks first. When the oldest one gets about three days from hatching, up the humidity to around 50%. Stop turning it and any embryos that are older than a week. Hopefully there won't be any younger than a week in there. Once you notice an external pip in the oldest egg up the humidity to 70%. As soon as it hatches, remove the empty shell. That just puts off humidity like crazy. Start heating up your brooder. Leave him in the incubator for an hour after hatching, and then move him to the brooder. Lower the humidity and go back to incubating like normal until the next one makes it to lockdown age.

Do you mean by your second question, should you leave the egg in the nest box? I don't quite understand, lol. Sorry!

 

[Saigey]

Hi again!!! I just found this thread, that's so exciting you have some babies! What do you plan on doing with them? I would stop adding duck eggs to the incubator unless you have a plan for all of those ducklings. They're going to be crazy messy and get big fast.
Young birds are perfectly capable of raising of hatching healthy babies. People usually like to wait to incubate their eggs until they're over a year though, so that their reproductive system can work out all of the kinks first. When the oldest one gets about three days from hatching, up the humidity to around 50%. Stop turning it and any embryos that are older than a week. Hopefully there won't be any younger than a week in there. Once you notice an external pip in the oldest egg up the humidity to 70%. As soon as it hatches, remove the empty shell. That just puts off humidity like crazy. Start heating up your brooder. Leave him in the incubator for an hour after hatching, and then move him to the brooder. Lower the humidity and go back to incubating like normal until the next one makes it to lockdown age.

Do you mean by your second question, should you leave the egg in the nest box? I don't quite understand, lol. Sorry!

Yes! All of a sudden, babies! And, correct, my mom seems convinced I should leave an actual egg in the next box for some reason.

 

[MGG]

Yes! All of a sudden, babies! And, correct, my mom seems convinced I should leave an actual egg in the next 3 box for some reason.

Ah ok. Yeah, I would definitely not do that. It will inevitably get broken somehow, and then they'll discover how delicious eggs are. Then you'll have relentless egg eaters on your hands, they'll eat every single egg before you can get it. It's an impossible habit to break too.
She probably won't go broody and decide to sit on any. That's been bred out of most domestic birds. The egg will just get eaten or go bad. Any more eggs she lays I would pull and use for eating. I don't recommend eating any of them plain like chicken eggs, they're surprisingly very bland. But they're great in baked goods.

 

[Saigey]

Ah ok. Yeah, I would definitely not do that. It will inevitably get broken somehow, and then they'll discover how delicious eggs are. Then you'll have relentless egg eaters on your hands, they'll eat every single egg before you can get it. It's an impossible habit to break too.
She probably won't go broody and decide to sit on any. That's been bred out of most domestic birds. The egg will just get eaten or go bad. Any more eggs she lays I would pull and use for eating. I don't recommend eating any of them plain like chicken eggs, they're surprisingly very bland. But they're great in baked goods.

I was right! Ah, the joy of being able to tell your mom "I told you so" lol. Brownies for all!

 

[Saigey]

So if I keep removing them, is she going to keep laying? Or will she eventually cut it out? Because she's still being a little egg machine.

 

[Miss Lydia]

When I take my Runners and Buffs eggs up they keep on laying until their bodies say time to rest. They have to take breaks periodically to replenish their calcium reserves.