- Mar 23, 2013
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My girlfriend and I are guardians of a château in Normandy that has a pond and about fifteen domestic ducks (in addition to a couple wild Mallard couples).
The domestic breeds include three White Muscovies, one of which started laying eggs about four weeks ago. The last time I was able to make a count of the eggs, about two weeks ago, there were thirteen in the nest. A few days ago I noticed there were three eggs outside of the nest and figured she must have rejected them or something.
Today, however, I went to check on the nest and I discovered not one but two nests with at least twenty two eggs in total (ten in the new one).
Now, it's quite possible that she was continually laying eggs after I was able to keep count, her first nest is deep and well lined with down. So maybe she felt it had filled up, then started laying eggs outside of it, and then finally decided to make another nest and move a few of the older eggs over with the new ones? Is this at all plausible? If so, would that mean these are not fertile eggs, and she is simply going to continue producing eggs, and we should start eating these things?
Another possibility is that one of the other ducks has started to lay eggs in the duck house. The eggs do look a bit different but perhaps that is just because they are younger? I imagine it would have to be the case that I overlooked a couple eggs the other day because from what I understand ducks only lay an egg a day and I only saw three about three days ago, so there should be six not ten if it is another's nest. Though my overlooking the eggs is, of course, also a possibility.
Also, it is far from clear that the other two Muscovies are male. As far as we know they could be but we haven't seen any mating going on, while with the other duck breeds have been going wild lately.
Thanks so much in advance for any help answering these questions.
The domestic breeds include three White Muscovies, one of which started laying eggs about four weeks ago. The last time I was able to make a count of the eggs, about two weeks ago, there were thirteen in the nest. A few days ago I noticed there were three eggs outside of the nest and figured she must have rejected them or something.
Today, however, I went to check on the nest and I discovered not one but two nests with at least twenty two eggs in total (ten in the new one).
Now, it's quite possible that she was continually laying eggs after I was able to keep count, her first nest is deep and well lined with down. So maybe she felt it had filled up, then started laying eggs outside of it, and then finally decided to make another nest and move a few of the older eggs over with the new ones? Is this at all plausible? If so, would that mean these are not fertile eggs, and she is simply going to continue producing eggs, and we should start eating these things?
Another possibility is that one of the other ducks has started to lay eggs in the duck house. The eggs do look a bit different but perhaps that is just because they are younger? I imagine it would have to be the case that I overlooked a couple eggs the other day because from what I understand ducks only lay an egg a day and I only saw three about three days ago, so there should be six not ten if it is another's nest. Though my overlooking the eggs is, of course, also a possibility.
Also, it is far from clear that the other two Muscovies are male. As far as we know they could be but we haven't seen any mating going on, while with the other duck breeds have been going wild lately.
Thanks so much in advance for any help answering these questions.
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