[dollyflock]

Hello everybody! I am desperately in need of some advice about duck breeding...

To cut a long story short, I have two female runner ducks who have been sitting on a HUGE nest of eggs for what seems like ages now... it is probably over a month. They have both been laying continuously for months and we have two Males who have been mating with them regularly. Since they made the big nest (end of may) they have been sitting on it almost constantly, only getting off every now and then to have a quick wash or eat. They are very aggressive with anyone who comes near the nest and they make a huge racket when they get off the nest, almost as if they are angry that they have had to leave the eggs!

What we want to know is, are they going to hatch or are they just normal eggs which are slowly rotting away in the nest?

We have tried candling them but to be honest we dont know what we are looking for.. the ones we looked at just looked dense and black apart from at one end where the light was shining through the air sac (which was quite large in some of them).

My partner and I are going on holiday soon and the ducks are going to stay with a boarder. We dont want to disturb the ducks and the nest so we may have leave it intact and just board the other ducks. However if they are not going to hatch we will just take the ducks off the nest and dispose of the eggs...

Help please, we really dont know what to do for the best, either way we dont want to do anything that is going to cause the ducks stress. I feel like if we move the eggs it will some how traumatise the ducks as they have been nesting for so long now.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks, Toni. 

[goosepimple]

Hi dolly, we used to keep runners and khaki campbells and they all did a communal hippy thing of sharing the broody nest with an enormous mound of eggs - they even moved their nest sometimes (all ducks do this sometimes) but they often forget half their eggs.  They build up their nest of eggs over a couple of weeks on a gradual basis, making a big mountain and then sitting on it, lots of feathers and bits and pieces in there.  Its about 35 days for them to hatch - always a bit difficult to tell when that is as its built up over a period of time.  Likely some will hatch - all you have said sounds perfectly normal so don't worry.  Ours were hopeless mums - ducks can't count remember and if they have lots, don't expect to end up with lots, they drag them around everywhere when only a couple of days old (we keep Muscovy ducks only now which roost in trees and are excellent attentive mums).  Just sit it out, don't hassle them at all, they will do it all by themselves without any help from you (your help isn't wanted remember).  Just make sure they have somewhere to hide (like shelters made from tree branches/leaves) if there is danger around and a large shallow dish (we use the saucers from huge plantpots) with some stones in for them to get in and out (both sides) and a dish of tiny breadcrumbs (magimix if you have one) with milk so its sloppy (they will start eating this by about day 2).  See if you can get someone to come in and change the swimming water once and day and leave a plastic container full of breadcrumbs and a pint of milk in the fridge for them to make a sloppy consistancy each day.  The rest is up to the ducks.  It does seem an enormously long time to the hatching sometimes, longer as you are anxious.  Can't you get someone to come in and look after all your ducks (must be someone reasonably reliable near you, even a school kid especially if you pay them!) - relocation is stressful to all fowl.  If you have a water supply nearby (river/stream or similar) they would be likely to survive without any additional help, even ducklings peck away at grass and beasties.  Relax and have a good holiday, if it doesn't work out this time they (or others) will soon get broody again and have another bash at it.

[dollyflock]

Thanks Amanda! By the sounds of it then some will probably hatch... it just seems like its been so long since they started nesting I just assumed that nothing was going to happen because it would have happened by now. We are going on holiday on the 15th of August... I will give it til the beginning of August and if nothing has happened by then should I assume that they are not going to hatch? They started nesting around the start of june so by then it will be about 60 days. If nothing has happened by then should I dispose of the eggs?

Thanks again, Toni.

[doganjo]

Thanks Amanda! By the sounds of it then some will probably hatch... it just seems like its been so long since they started nesting I just assumed that nothing was going to happen because it would have happened by now. We are going on holiday on the 15th of August... I will give it til the beginning of August and if nothing has happened by then should I assume that they are not going to hatch? They started nesting around the start of june so by then it will be about 60 days. If nothing has happened by then should I dispose of the eggs?

Thanks again, Toni.

Yes, get rid of the eggs as they will be rotten - hold your nose - some may be cracked.  Personally I doubt if any will hatch now anyway, but time will tell!

[OhLaLa]

Indian Runner eggs take a full 28 days to hatch.

If you only have two ducks, and they are broody, who laid the large pile of eggs? If it's the two ducks and they are still laying then they won't be sitting properly, despite all of their complaining.

If it's the other ducks who have access to the nest they will lay their eggs in there too, so you will have eggs which are starting the process and some that are near - or past - the incubation period. You really need to keep other ducks off nests with broodies on.

Any eggs older than about 31 days will not hatch, but if you have a mixture of newly laid eggs in there, then some of them may be on their way to hatching just fine.....

 

[dollyflock]

There are two runners on the nest, they have been laying consistantly since the end of may, not always everyday but at least every other day. I estimate there are about thirty eggs in there! Obviously some are very old and im pretty sure not going to hatch. I think they stopped laying a couple of weeks ago so some of them are relatively new... I guess im going to have to take my chances and dispose of the ones that look the oldest but how do I tell? I have tried candling them but they just look dense and black about three quarters of the way with a large air sac at the end which allows light to shine through. Is this how a rotten egg would look or is this how a 'ready to hatch' egg would look?

Thanks for all the advice guys...

P.S I have 6 ducks, the two female runners are the ones nesting, one one baby and two males and one other duck that lays but she always does it in the garden and never sits on her eggs so all the eggs are definately the two runner's.

[doganjo]

Here's a site with candling pictuers which may help you.  It is difficult to start with.  Do you know anyone nearby who has hens - they just might know what to look for.

http://shilala.homestead.com/candling.html

and another
http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-candling.html

Also you might see movement in the live eggs.(pulse beating)

[dollyflock]

Just a quick update... we have had one baby! Went into the duck shed last night and this tiny little head popped out of the nest and started cheeping! So after six long weeks something is happening, and I had finally made the decision to get rid of the eggs as nothing had happened... and then something hatches, sods law! There are about ten other eggs in the nest so we will see what happens with those...

Toni

[Rosemary]

Ah, that's lovely    Hopefully a few more to come to keep him company 

[goosepimple]

great! always best to wait - lost count the amount of times I thought nothing could possibly hatch now after this amount of time, then a couple of days later.... like watching a kettle boil - takes longer.  Well done.  They'll be rubbish at looking after it once it gets a bit bigger so maybe try and keep them semi-confined so it can't get too lost.

[faith0504]

oh bless its lovely that you have a happy ending, i bet they are very proud mummies