What would a duck do if some eggs hatched and some haven't yet?

[violets812]

AJAX & AMY ~ Welsh Harlequins​

Amy started setting all the time on April 14th - before that she only set at night. I'll have to take a picture of her next - it's taller than she is and she works on it and nuzzles the eggs around often. They were said to be the calmest quietest ducks & we were moving into a town (but a tiny town in SD, so there's not a lot of rules etc.)

I bought 6 pekin eggs from eBay and then she laid over 20, so... I wouldn't be surprised if they all didn't hatch. I used an incubator for geese the last few years but we were on our ranch then & plus, I loaned it for the summer to a friend. She kicked one egg out and somehow one of them broke it and put it (??) into their water bowl.

They have a fairly large duck enclosure and then I also let them come out onto the yard you can see here. She's not too interested in coming out any more, but I don't watch them constantly either. There is a 6 ft fence and the top of their enclosure has a metal net so I really think one of them must have broken the egg and put it in their drinking water. I check on them a few times a day and they didn't ever act sick or anything after I found the 1/2 egg and contents in the water. I wonder why they'd put it into the water - but as you can see, they just have little duck brains, LOL!

Ajax runs/half flies at me like he's so tough. But he gets so upset, he forgets to open his bill and just pokes me with it closed! haha

 

[ducklover700]

Your ducks are beautiful!

As for your 1/2 egg that you found in the water-ducks sometimes lay their eggs in the strangest places. It's possible that neither one of your adults broke it-your female may have just laid it in funny place where it wasn't well protected and ended up stepped on. Or perhaps your male thought it looked like a nice snack. They eat their own poo, why not their eggs?

As for the eggs that don't hatch: I don't think your female will worry over them too much. when her babies hatch (however many there are that make it...) she'll be taking care of her ducklings, and not worrying about unhatched eggs. just remove the duds from her nest/pen and toss them into the garbage.

Somethings to keep in mind: You'll most likely need to remove your drake (male) from the mother, and her babies. Drakes are known to hurt, or even kill the ducklings. He may damage the eggs. So watch his behavior around them. Also, is this your female's first clutch? often times, the female may not take care of her babies. she might not keep up with them-and you'll have to be prepared to take them away, and raise them yourself.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Give her a chance though, my Muscovy is almost 4 yrs old and had a clutch of 3 last year, when they started hatching she tried to kill the first one, I tried very hard to get her to keep it, nope she really wanted to kill it, the other one died from being shrink wrapped the other never tried to hatch. I said i would not let her try again {if my chickens do this they never get a chance to sit again.} But this year she went broody again I decided to let her and see how it went. Knowing full well i might have to take these ducklings too. But she has proved to be a great mama duck. So don't be in too big of a hurry to take the ducklings from her. After 4 hatched and i found
1 the next evening dead i was ready to take them away but my DH talked me into leaving them and that maybe the little one just wasn't meant to live, there were no marks on it like mama had gotten ahold of it like the year before. I am so glad i didn't rush and take those little ones from her she has proven to be an excellent mother. After the duckling hatch she will probably continue to sit, My girl hatched her last egg on day 34 so on day 35 i candled and could see something was not right[ and i am not a good candler] so i took the remaining 4 and cracked them open. they all had started but stopped before even coming close to looking like a duckling. Give her a day or 2 after the last on hatches then candle that way she is able to get up and take care of her little ones. Be sure to put food and water close by too. Hoping for a great hatch for you and your duck. please let us know how it goes..

[forgot to say Muscovies sit for 35 days is the reason I waited till day 35 to candle]

 

[violets812]

Wow! Thank you both so much for taking the time to write back!! We are total strangers but you both took considerable time & effort to help me ~ I appreciate it so much. I never thought she might not be a great mother and I have all the brooding supplies (packed away!) from when I was incubating. I will get them out and ready, just in case. I also did not know to separate the drake so that could have been a fatal mistake.

With bantam chickens, guineas and geese, we definitely learned by mistake; fatal mistakes for them. Thank you both so much!!

 

[ducklover700]

There's a lot of information around here, and lots of people with the knowledge to help. I think it's just as equally important to remember that everybody has different experiences with their birds-so no one really knows how your birds will react. Each duck is different.