Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 3 Rouen ducks -2 female and 1 male- that I'm keeping as pets. This morning I found an egg in their water bowl. I was wondering whether the ducks will know what to do by instinct or if I should incubate the eggs or what. As of now, I took the egg out of the bowl and put it in a small pile of leaves. Since it's still march (i live in ny) and cold I'm worried that it might die. Should I expect more eggs as the spring comes? and where can I find information on incubating eggs if that's what I should do?

Thank you for any help you can give!

Feel free to email me at Thelectricmayhem@aol.com

Sounds like she is still young and she will probably continue to lay wherever but instinct will take over eventually. Wouldn't worry about incubating ones laid now as she will lay more eggs than you will know what to do with once she is in full swing.

Make a plan for these ducklings now whether you let her hatch them or you incubate them. You may even consider not letting them hatch at all or only allowing 1 or 2. I had a little oops last year and my Rouen duck hid her nest and hatched 18 of 19 eggs and being a very good mother they all survived. This was probably her 4th or 5th nest she had made (all with 20+ eggs)......anyways now there are 10 nests needing monitored as obvisously can't have a hundred ducklings running around.

Anyone in Ohio need some great Rouens??

Hope this helps, jen

Hey,

I agree with Branta, your duck sounds inexperianced. But experiance comes with practise and she'll soon learn what to do. As laying and nesting make female ducks vunerable, make sure they have plenty of nesting materials and bedding to make laying comfortable and secure.
If you don't want ducklings then you can supply artifical eggs inplace of the ones just laid, or simply take the eggs away. Or, if you want to allow ducklings then you can do this two ways. Either by natural incubation or artifical incubation.
Natural incubation is far easier on your part, and also once the duck gets experiance, she'll be able to do a more accurate job of caring for the eggs and ducklings. But first time mothers do need to be checked regularly.
I actually studied wild ducks for about 6 years before i got some domestic ducks myself, so i had a good idea of duck breeding behaviour before mine started.
Artifical incubation involves more of your time. The temperature and humidity needs to be exact, and monitored/changed at the different stages of incubation.
I hope you have success if you do allow to have ducklings.
I'd suggest that you do as much research as possible into incubation and rearing ducklings, including any and every possible problem that you make be likely to encounter, so that you'll be prepared.

Good luck
Mel X