Hi, I am from New South Wales, Australia. My indian runner duck has been sitting on her eggs since 8th October. She is doing really well and only comes out once a day to have a swim and eat. I initially counted 15 eggs when she started sitting. Since about 1 week ago I have found 5 empty egg shells near the nest and I suspected she was doing it. When I checked the nest today I caught her red-handed eating one of the eggs' contents. There are now 13 eggs in the nest, so I assume all up she had laid 20 eggs. Is she eating them because she knows there aren't any chicks in the eggs or because there were too many eggs in the nest? Anyone had a similar experience?

My male and female ducks live in our suburban backyard quite happily with our dog and cat. They leave eachother alone. The mum duck found her own nest in amongst a bush we have near our fence and I have left her to her own devices. I just make sure she has lots of resh water and food near her nest, though she prefers to go and meet her mate and have a splash when she relieves herself from duty. As the chicks hatch I will keep them in a cage in our sunroom.

This is the first time I am hatching eggs so any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks & keep smiling :-)

-- Maryanne from Australia (maryanoel@bigpond.com), October 23, 2001

Answers

Hi, Maryanne~my ducks usually manage to kick out or lose out of the nest a number of eggs before the hatch comes off, but they also never seem to bother those eggs after they are out from underneath themselves. Maybe your duck is doing the same thing, but is keeping the area cleaned up to keep predators away from the area by not allowing an attraction to pull them in. I don't have any other answer than that, since it sounds like you supply her with everything else she needs. Maybe someone else has a better explanation?

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

I don't know for sure if this is what she's doing, but I've observed that the broody hens will eat the egg if it breaks--nature's way of "tidying up" so the nest isn't fouled so much, I guess.

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