[mentalmilly]

Hi all  A problem l have.  I have a duck sitting on a too many eggs and it looks as if non are going to hatch. She managed last year fine, I have taken 5 away and 4 were dead, one not fertile.  I think l made the mistake of letting her sit on too many and she has let them all go cold, at different intervals.  So they have all seemed to have died.  Its now day 40,  how long should l let her sit and would she get off them herself if she thinks they wont hatch?  She is not the brightest duck in the flock so should l take them away from her?  Any hints or ideas welcome.  Shame, she is a fantastic mum. 

[HesterF]

Where is she sitting? Can you just move her away from that area? I find my hens really hard to break but I just shut the goose out of her shed when she went broody and she was fixed within hours. Not had a duck go broody yet though.

[mentalmilly]

She is sitting in a hut by herself and she is a muscovy, I suppose l could shut her out of that shed, but dont know whether to take the eggs away a few at a time or just do it all at once and get it over with.  What do you think Hester?  She is going to be seriously fed up if l shut her out suddenly.

[Steph Hen]

If it were a hen I'd definitely get it over in one go. Remove eggs and shut her out of her shed. But I don't know anything about muscovy ducks.

[mentalmilly]

Well l shall know tomorrow as have decided to take a few away today and the tomorrow shut her out of the shed and remove the rest of the eggs. Thanks for your input.

[HesterF]

Yep, I'd just go for it. She wouldn't notice any difference in eggs going down except, possibly, when it got to just one or two. Certainly a serious broody will just stay there come what may so the best thing to do is separate her from the area (easy if it's a shed - harder if you have to fence off a nest she's built outside!).

H

[goosepimple]

The amount of times I have thought with my Muscovies, 'right that's it, she's off tomorrow' and then they come wandering out with a dozen or so, seemed like it was way over their full term sitting, so I wouldn't be so hasty.


And they can sit on loads of eggs, don't interfere, just leave them to get on with it, Muscovies know what they are doing.  We had one a couple of years back who came out with a hatch of 17, all survived, doubling my stock at that time.


We take their eggs now for eating as they're great poached and only let them sit on a few although we do get some escapees, one of which came out 2 days ago - an all white Muscovy with blue eyes and 6 teeny bright yellow chickalumps, just lovely.


Give her a day or so yet I'd say, and leave all her eggs there, you never know...

[mentalmilly]

thanks goosepimple  l have taken some eggs away and they were dead but have left her about 8 they are now one week overdue so will give her until Friday and thats that.  She cant sit forever poor thing.

[pigalicious]

Ducks generally sit for 28 days, but you have to know when they start incubating their eggs. They may appear to sitting when they are not actually. If you think the eggs are off you could test them by "candling" them. If they are off and she is sitting well, you could try putting fresh fertile eggs under her, works for chickens who will sit for over 3 months! Not sure if this works for ducks.

      P

[northfifeduckling]

Same thoughts here - she'll try again most likely. You could just swap the Dodos for new eggs and see if she's that persistent? Duck eggs tend to die if they don't get wet in the last week or so, surely yours have access to get their tummy feathers wet