To many duck eggs

[My2petducks]

Hi all I am new to the website and to raising ducks. We bought 2 Pekin ducks the beginning of March. The past month one of the ducks has been laying eggs. We think we have a male and female because we've seen one on top of the other in the pool. The female sits on the eggs but not all the time. I thought she would eventually stop laying eggs but she hasn't. I think I counted over 30 eggs this morning in the nest. My question is if I should take the eggs out of the nest or leave them. We're not sure if they are fertilized or not. One of the eggs is getting darker in color. Could that be a duckling or is the egg going bad?

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Hi all I am new to the website and to raising ducks. We bought 2 Pekin ducks the beginning of March. The past month one of the ducks has been laying eggs. We think we have a male and female because we've seen one on top of the other in the pool. The female sits on the eggs but not all the time. I thought she would eventually stop laying eggs but she hasn't. I think I counted over 30 eggs this morning in the nest. My question is if I should take the eggs out of the nest or leave them. We're not sure if they are fertilized or not. One of the eggs is getting darker in color. Could that be a duckling or is the egg going bad?

Welcome to BYC!!!

Do you know how to candle the eggs to see if there's life in them? I would do that to know how to proceed.

Your Pekin isn't broody, meaning she's not setting on the eggs with a definite intention of hatching them. I would, at the very least, candle them and dispose of anything that doesn't have signs of life. Thirty eggs would be a lot of eggs for any duck to set on, and you don't want rotten exploding eggs in your nest. It's one of those smells like a few other things that you'll never forget once you experience it, and it's a little trouble to get rid of.

 

[My2petducks]

Thanks for the advice! I looked up candeling the eggs and will do that. I definitely don't want to smell rotten duck eggs!

 

[HomesteadDucks]

JadeComputerGal had a very good response. I'm ashamed of myself that I didn't think of that. I don't think that your duck is broody. I'm worried that if you do find any eggs with life in them, they will die if you were to leave them in the nest. I would consider incubating them if you really want ducklings. But maybe your duck will suddenly become broody. You never know. As for the rotten eggs, I've smelt them before and it is not pleasant. DISPOSE CAREFULLY.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Thanks for the advice! I looked up candeling the eggs and will do that. I definitely don't want to smell rotten duck eggs!

Here's a pretty good link I randomly found-->https://poultrykeeper.com/incubating-and-hatching-eggs/candling-eggs/. I didn't want to patronize you by assuming you didn't know how to candle. There are many other links on this site, but I wanted to make it simple for you to do it.

When you collect them, be gentle. I put them big end up in egg cartons, but even a box works. Just don't jar them any more than you have to in picking them up. The network of vessels is easily damaged by jarring the eggs, especially in the earlier stages.

Please come back to let us know what you find out! I'm a hatching/incubating fanatic, so I'm always curious how other peoples stuff is coming along!

 

[JadeComputerGal]

JadeComputerGal had a very good response. I wouldn't ashamed of myself that I didn't think of that. I don't think that your duck is broody. I'm worried that if you do find any eggs with life in them, they will die if you were to leave them in the nest. I would consider incubating them if you really want ducklings. But maybe your duck will suddenly become broody. You never know. As for the rotten eggs, I've smelt them before and it is not pleasant. DISPOSE CAREFULLY.

Thank you HD! That means a lot to me!

LOL. You know the smell. It's something you don't forget. I'd put it in the top 3 of awful organic stuff smells after human bodies and reptiles.

I was going to propose the incubation thing after the OP sees what she has. Not everyone wants ducklings, but I can never have enough!

 

[My2petducks]

Good morning and thank you all for the help! I candled a couple of the eggs. I think one has an embryo and the other doesn't. I took them off the bottom of the nest to make sure I wasn't getting one she just laid. Please look and tell me what you think. She was sitting on the nest this morning but usually during the day she's out and about.

 

[My2petducks]

 

[My2petducks]

We would love to have little ducklings! So if they are fertile I will probably start incubating them! This may be a stupid question but being new to having ducks I'm not sure...Is it possible that both of our duck are female even though we saw one on top of the other? Could they both be laying eggs in the same nest?

 

[TMNDucks]

Sometimes girl ducks do play around like that. I have 3 females and 1 male and I will often see the girls fooling around in the pool. That would explain the extraordinary number of eggs you have, but it of course would mean nothing is fertilized.

Easy way to tell is to look for a drake feather, (tail feather curling up and back) and listen to their quacks. Males sound low and raspy.