Everyday is an Easter egg hunt at our place LOL! I haven't died them but have marked them with permanent markers so I know which ones are old then snitch the fresh ones from the nest. Some ducks don't like the marker tho and kick the eggs out. Most ducks lay them any old place! We actually have a yearly egg hunt on my 2 and a half acres but we use plastic eggs and no chocolate(FLORIDA SUN AND fireants!) this year Im thinking of making a prize box and they can turn in the eggs for prizes,,,still thinking

GoldenPond, Yep, your on the right tract. I don't let my ducks out untill 8:30-9:00am, and their eggs are layed. Sounds like we have the same set-up. Sometimes they decide to stay out all night(naughty little kids) and I hear the girls 1/2 to an hour after sunrise laying their eggs under my bedroom window. That makes up for staying out all night because......We LOVE Those Eggs!!!!!!!

It's been a while since the last post on this subject but I am in need of some imformation regarding a chicken hatching duck eggs. I bought twelve fertile mixed breed duck eggs off of ebay hoping to get my broody jersey giant hen to maybe hatch some out. All's fine so far; she's doing her job (it's only been a few days). She's four years old and has never even seen a rooster only her bunk mate she was raised with (a red sex-link). what I need to know first is why is she exibiting this behavior now and to such an extreme that she's been in the nesting box almost constantly for the last month and a half. Is she going to quit on me before any of the six eggs can hatch? The second thing I need to know is how successful am I going to be hatching out any of the remaining six in my homemade incubator when I am having trouble maintaining a constant temperature and humidity at least the first three days (I think I got a handle on it now) but has the damage already been done (too soon to candle). What are my chances as opposed to Isabel's (the hen) in getting any duck babies to hatch? Oh, one more thing about Isabel, she is a free range hen who would only come in the coop to eat and put herself to bed at nightfall and all I had to do is be there to close the door. Now she acts broody and strange when she once was a chatty, personable, happy girl. Was this the wrong tact to take, giving her fertile eggs? The reason I choose duck eggs is I didn't want to take the chance of getting a rooster (don't like 'em).

It is a very common problem. Are they penned at nights? If so, make sure not to release them until at least two hours after daybreak, by which time the duck will almost certainly have laid - probably in a corner of the shed. If they are not shedded and they spend the night on the pond, then it sems she is just laying where she is rather than leave her companions. You probably need to pen them to get any eggs. Despite many years' exerience and a few hundred ducks, I have never had any success in getting ducks to lay in a box. Tens of thousands of hens yes, but ducks, no. It is likely to be the Rouen, because a pure mallard would not normally be laying eggs at this time of year. Old McDonald.