I live in So. Georgia. We have one female Pekin and one male mallard. We did have another pekin of unknown sex but it was eaten by an alligator about eight months ago. Pekin is sitting eggs, about 18 eggs. Are the eggs fertile and can the mallard breed with the pekin? Will the pekin set on the eggs even if they are not fertile? How long before the eggs hatch? Any other info on this matter appreciated.

-- W. T. Clark (duckhook0@yahoo.com), August 22, 2001

Answers

We had a Pekin hen mate with a Cayuga drake this spring. The offspring are black and white, and one looks like it's wearing a tuxedo! Bet at least some of the eggs are fertile. Jan

-- Jan in Co (Janice12@aol.com), August 22, 2001.

we had a flock of different ducks at one time and they all 'flew the coop' so to speak, in other words they liked to free roam and mingle with each other. Needless to say we had a lot of 'mixed-breed' babies running around after awhile. Only problem we saw was that the mixed-breeds were sterile. hope this helps.

-- yancee in texas (rnanning@comwerx.net), August 22, 2001.

Hi, W.T. Sure, there should be no problem if they actually mated. You'll just get some cute ducklings. (ALL ducklings are cute, it's why the word cute had to be invented. :) A duck will sit on eggs even if they aren't fertile, they don't know the difference: they just sit on them. She should pull off the hatch in 28 days if she's going to, although it can vary a bit but not by much. 18 eggs seems like a lot, so if she kicks any out of the nest, just remove them. She'll get a better hatch if she covers them well, so if she loses a few it's probably a good thing for the other eggs. As for fertility of the ducklings, they should be fertile with no problems. The only duck crosses that I know of that would be sterile would be Muscovy crossed with any other domestic Mallard based breed (nearly all of the domestic ducks are descended in some fashion from the Mallard, which is a world wide duck). So yours should be fine. It would be a good idea to ignore her on the nest as much as you can so she isn't disturbed. If you walk by her after she has been sitting for awhile and really "getting into it" she'll crouch a little lower to make herself less visible (being a duck she doesn't realize that Pekins are about as visible as billboards . . .) when she sees you coming. This is a good signal to pretend that you don't see her when you walk by, and just think of the esteem boost you give her as she thinks she's fooled you. :) Good luck! It's the greatest charge the first time you see the little ones. :)

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), August 23, 2001.

We had a Pekin duck mate with a Rouen drake. (Last hatch she got 14 ducklings!!)

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), August 23, 2001.

do keep track of how long she is sitting. Once the 28 days have passed take her off the nest(if nothing has hatched)and remove the eggs. Or even better, slip them out from under her a few at a time and candle them so you will know if they are fertile or not. No sense having her sit all that time if they are not fertile. Yes, all of domestic "true ducks" are desendants of the Mallard and cross readily. the muscovie as mentioned above is not related, being a jungle bird from South America but a cross will prduce "mules". For info on candling just post your question on The Poultry Connection, General Waterfowl forum and you'll find lots of good links with pictures on candling. Have fun! :)

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), August 23, 2001.