I have 2 ducks; 1 male and 1 female. She laid a total of 16 eggs and then sat on them as well. After a period of 15 to 18 days, 3 of her eggs finally hatched! :) Today is the 3rd day since all 3 eggs hatched, but she won't sit on the rest of her eggs. And if she does sit on them, she doesn't cover all of them like she used to and did before. Some of her eggs stick out from the sides and don't receive an equal amount of warmth. They are fertile and I can see ducklings in some of them as they are extremely dark and a bit heavy too. But she won't sit on them. And I thought once the eggs start hatching, all of them are hatched within 2 days, but it's the 3rd day today. We don't have an incubator either. How can I help the rest of the eggs hatch if she doesn't sit on all of them as much as she did before the 3 eggs hatched?
Let the duck family handle this, if you touch them she may not want them.They always find away to take care there own!
This can be normal and there is actually nothing to worry about. The mother knows when she needs to sit on the eggs and will do so. At times they can just lay the eggs and not worry about them for a few days.
I have 3 female ducks and 2 males. The males have been mounting the females. The problems is that they lay all their eggs in the pond.
We can see them laying on the bottom. Is there a way to stop this?A couple of days ago I found a duck nesting with one little duckie. Later some of the eggs hatched and I fed the ducks everyday. So there is the mom, the big duckie and the little duckies, but there's still 5 eggs in the nest.
I'm worried did she abandon her eggs? Are they still gonna hatch and how is it possible that she has an older duckie and younger duckies?
A mallard laid two eggs in our flowerbed. The next day she sat under our bird feeder with the male, but did not lay an egg and today we haven't seen her at all. Is there a chance she will return or likely she has abandoned her nest? How long before I know if she is not returning? I was so excited about the prospective brood, now I'm so sad she didn't come back.
By Judy
My duck started sitting on the 8 eggs she laid on the 19th of May 2020. Suddenly I found only 7 eggs. I don't know where the 8th one is and today is the first of June.
I had noticed 3 days back that now my duck is not sitting on her eggs again. What may be the cause or are the eggs ready to hatch?Normally it takes 28 to 35 days for the eggs to hatch once the duck starts to sit on the eggs. If you do not see the eggs hatching after 45 days it is time to pick them up and throw them away. You should try and leave the duck alone and allow her to take care of her nest and eggs by herself.
Our duck had sat on 8 eggs and they were due to hatch this weekend. She has left them all and they are now cold. Why did she leave them? They have full size ducklings inside.
We have 1 male and 2 female ducks that we got from a friend. One of the females laid a nest of at least 15 eggs.
She doesn't sit on the nest all the time, but she does every few hours.
My mallard hen and Indian runner have mated. My hen has laid 30 eggs so far. When will she start sitting on them?
I bought a brown speckled female Mallard at an auction, and she has laid 12 eggs but does not sit on them all the time. Are they still good, and will she sit on them to hatch them, or should I take them out? There is a male mallard duck with her.
By Charolette A
My magpie duck has laid 16 eggs one every day since January 1st, but she doesn't sit on them. She is only a year old. Will she sit or should I collect them?
I have ducks and they are laying eggs. They do not sit on them all the time just a small part of the day. Will the eggs still hatch?
By rick from Calhoun City, MS
I had ducks a few yrs back (peking ducks) and they didn't sit on them all the time either, and some of the eggs still hatched (guess the fertile ones). Good luck with them.
I have 3 female pekin ducks and 1 male. The three ladies have all been laying eggs for many weeks, but will only sit at night. They are also using the same nest and up to 25 eggs will be clumped together, but since there are so many a lot will start breaking.
We have another nesting box, but they won't use it. My other main problem is that the girls have gone through multiple clusters and still won't sit on them all day like they should. We let the ducks out each morning to swim in the creek, but whoever's on the nest in the morning gets right up to go swim with the others. Should we keep them locked up all day? We've tried to let half out and keep half in, but the ones inside just call and call for the others.
I read that you shouldn't mess with the eggs too much, but with so many eggs being laid it's hard to keep track of which ones are old, so I began dating the eggs as well as widening the nest so the eggs wouldn't break as easily. I have left things alone as well, but after a while I'll go out and smell rotten eggs and realize that there are many broken and rotting in their nest.
I'm just out of options and don't know what else to do. I would incubate their eggs, but I want the mothers to take care of the babies when they hatch and I don't know if they will if they didn't have them with them. Please let me know anything that might help!
It really sounds to me that this is a mess and you really should try and separate the females when they are laying the eggs. You can move the male around so they can fertilize the eggs in the nest. I would try and just get rid of the eggs that are there right now and try and start over again. Split the pen up into different sections and give each one of the females a nesting box. I think allowing them to go swimming is good but when done you should put them back on their own side of the pen and then they can sit on their own nest.
My Hazel (duck) had 1 egg. Should I leave it here?
You should leave it alone unless it is in an unsafe place. The place should be safe from outside predators for Hazel and her egg.
If Hazel is a close pet, you might be able to add some "filler" for her nest - straw or something similar.
If this is an area where your duck feels at home, then best to leave it and create a nest around it.
Funny, I was recently talking to someone whose geese laid eggs in an unsafe place, and, one day of their own volition, the geese rolled the eggs to a place under the house!
Maybe if you create a better nesting place somewhere safe and somehow encourage her to rest there, she will move the egg on her own.
