Duck eggs.....will they hatch on their own?

[jcummins]

We have 2 Rouen male/female, and 3 Kahi, one male two female.

Little awhile back they started laying. We put them up at night, free as a bird during the day. Their area is below our guinea coop. At first, the eggs was at the entrance, almost out of the area, and sequentially kind of scattered. Then I noticed a nest forming. We continued to harvest the eggs. This evening, my wife said she saw an egg out there, and you cannot see the nest directly because of where it's at. But I found 7 eggs in the nest, many partially buried.

We don't necessarily need the eggs, and thinking ....will these hatch? I've read they have the instinct to roll the bad eggs away from the nest, like the ones I found near the entrance. So from reading, looks like the real deal.

Will they hatch? How best to manage?

 

[Ford850]

Will they hatch? Only if the hen was sitting on them 24/7 for 28 days (except for an occasional break). Or, if they were in an incubator for the same time period at the correct temperature and humidity level.

 

[jcummins]

That isn't happening....they made the next, but ducks out and about during the day.

 

[EddieWalker]

Seems kind of late in the year, but I guess hey are capable of hatching year round. I've had horrible luck with ducks. They never sit on their eggs and usualy just seem to drop them as they are walking around. We find them in the most unexpected places.

For the last couple of years, we've tried a couple different incubators for chicken eggs and failed with every one of them. This year, we just let our chickens sit on their eggs until they hatched. We ended up with 50 that hatched. We tried adding duck eggs to the chicken eggs to see if they would hatch too, but non did. Next year we plan on trying to add duck eggs to the chicken eggs again. My wife and I think it's a good idea, but we don't know why none of them hatched when so many of the chicken eggs did.

For us, hatching season is at the end of winter/beginning of spring. For two months, we where getting a chick almost every day!!!

 

[ning]

Eggs can be viable for quite some time after being laid - easily a couple of weeks unless temperature is high, unless a bird actively starts incubating them.
You'll note that a chicken may lay an egg a day, and if allowed to will build up a nest full of eggs, before she starts to incubate them - and then they all hatch at about the same time.

So if you want ducklings, gather a few up, and toss them into an incubator.
If you don't, duck eggs make great baking eggs, but I prefer chicken eggs for food where the egg is obvious (fried eggs, scrambled, omeletes, etc).

 

[s219]

My wife incubated duck eggs last spring and it worked well, but I remember there were some differences between how duck and chicken eggs need to be incubated. Plenty of information on the internet how to do it. She had gotten the eggs from a nearby neighbor who like you, had her ducks randomly dropping eggs all over the property. We collected 6-7 of them, had four make it to hatching, and then three healthy duckings hatch and grow up. I was surprised how easy it was, even for rookies like us.

 

[jcummins]

My wife incubated duck eggs last spring and it worked well, but I remember there were some differences between how duck and chicken eggs need to be incubated. Plenty of information on the internet how to do it. She had gotten the eggs from a nearby neighbor who like you, had her ducks randomly dropping eggs all over the property. We collected 6-7 of them, had four make it to hatching, and then three healthy duckings hatch and grow up. I was surprised how easy it was, even for rookies like us.

We put the ducks up under a guinea coop (guineas roost in the coop each night). Coons are close, and if we didn't think they would get to them. BUT....the only place we've found eggs are in 'their' coop area. Doesn't mean there are other around but it's all we've found. I might get an incubator and give it a go.

 

[Ford850]

That isn't happening....they made the next, but ducks out and about during the day.

I should have explained more. They will continue to lay eggs and add to the nest until it's time for them to sit on the full nest. There might be 20 or more eggs by that time and they are sometimes buried in feathers. Then once they begin, they stay on the nest until they hatch (28 days).

 

[Egon]

Sixty five years ago we used hens to hatch goose eggs. There was no problem. Just get a broody hen and set her on the eggs. Just any old hen Dosen't work. It has to be one that is already sitting on eggs.

 

[nickel plate]

Once the hen is finished with her egg laying she should begin her set cycle. Wait a bit into that cycle and if you want to check the eggs for a live embryo, fill a bucket with cold water and GENTLY place one egg in the water (it will float) and if it "shivers" as sending out ripples in the water, it's alive.