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Help! Mallard on nest, but no eggs hatching...

10 years ago

We have a mallard duck that lays her eggs in our flower bed for the last 4 springs. There's never been any issues with her clutch. This year she laid 14 eggs. My question is this...one egg hatched 18 days ago. Mama duck seems to have lost that duckling that following day as it's not around. Anyways, it's been 18 days since that egg hatched and no others have hatched, but she's still sitting on the nest. Should I be removing the left-over 13 eggs as they're clearly not going to hatch or should I leave them??

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User
10 years ago
I recently had a similar issue with a goose. I'd try to take them out when she's away and candle them, just to be sure, then take it from there. You'll find other posts here on how to candle if you don't know how. They'll just eventually rot and "explode", and get stink and grossness all over and on momma. Plus, it's kinda hard on the females to sit for extremely long times. They don't get out and about too much to eat, etc.. They can be so dedicated, can't they?

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