I have duck eggs hiding everywhere, increasing in number, one day at a time. We went without any ducks laying (where I could find them) for three weeks and suddenly, I’ve got duck eggs showing up again, in increasingly strange places.
There are 11 in the blackberries (5 pictured, it’s an old picture and the eggs are mostly covered in leaf litter and feathers now).
I stole some, so that my father can have duck eggs for breakfast. He rather likes them.
It’s like a treasure hunt, as I discovered another nest in the shed, next to the building materials and my BIL’s car. It’s got 17 eggs in it and so far, aside from a few foray’s into sitting, no duck has decided to turn them into ducklings. Grumble grumble fucking grumble.
We have a ramp. Before we moved in, we think it was used to drive motorbikes up. Since we’ve been here it’s a ‘castle!’ for Amy and she runs up and down it. Underneath:
Another egg.
The piece de resistance though, is this.
You can’t see any eggs?
No. Me either. Not until the duck, whose tail you can see, hops off the nest, leaving behind sixteen eggs that she is hatching – ducklings due this afternoon, or tomorrow sometime. I’m a little excited.
I did a walk around the yard this morning, only to discover a new nest, in an old chook shelter that we haven’t cleaned out yet. 4 eggs and counting. Two nesting boxes also have freshly laid eggs.
However. I know that at least two ducks are laying somewhere else. God knows where. No doubt they’ll disappear one day, only to appear 5 weeks later with a shitload of ducklings. One duck was spotted coming in from the paddock across the highway (currently full of ewes and newborn lambs) and another from the paddock bordering our property.
It’s like Easter! Only with less chocolate.
Comments
21 responses to “A duck egg treasure hunt”
good luck
how are the little chickens going?
That is so neat. 🙂 I must remember to take my girls to our local duckpond soon as they adore seeing the ducklings waddling around.
Taz – The baby chickens are doing well, getting their feathers and growing at a rate of knots.
Marita – I expect Amy is going to adore the ducklings too.
I love watching ducks with their ducklings 😉 We get quite a few here as there are several ponds nearby. Does require a fair bit of care driving to and from town though as all of the Mummy ducks seem to think they own the roads and, of course, the ducklings follow on in a line quite happily!
Are your ducks destined for the table once they’re big enough?
Awww ducklings!! How cuuuuute! Bet they’ll be tasty when they’re all grown up too… 😉
Sharon – I expect we’ll have the same issues once the other duck decides to hatch her eggs. God help me.
Marylin – ooooh, very very tasty. #nomnomnom
So your place is now named Duck Farm? You’re going to be overrun with ducks and your dad can have duck eggs for breakfast every day!
River – not really, once they’ve grown up, they’ll be turned into roast ducks and pate and duck salad and oh, I can’t wait.
Mmmmmm, duck.
Oh I can’t wait for the duckling photos! BG Xx
Yummmmmm. Roast Duck.
Very interesting!
Awww, a duck egg hunt sounds quite fun to me, did you enjoy it?
So do they lay over several days and then sit? Do the eggs just hang around for a while? I know nothing about poultry!
Ali – Mmmm, duck indeed.
Bendy – I’m about to go shower and then check for ducklings. I am hoping like hell the eggs were fertile and that I’ve got babies.
Kristy – Hehehe.
Alex – Enjoy is a strong word, hehe. I didn’t mind, but I’d prefer they all laid in nesting boxes where I can keep an eye on them!
Deb – they lay over several weeks and then sit, if I was collecting the eggs, I’d be getting 2-3 duck eggs a day, but I’m letting them keep a clutch because I want babies. For the chooks, I collect fertile eggs to keep in the cupboard and then when a hen goes broody, I’ll put 8-12 eggs under her. So ducks and chooks are a little different.
I didn’t know fertile chook eggs could be kept like that. I would have thought they’d go “off”. How long can you keep them?
I figure about 6 weeks in the cupboard before they go ‘off’, but I’m rotating them, so the fresh ones collected go into the cupboard and then they get moved into the fridge – considering I’m getting around 3-4 eggs a day, eggs spend less than a week in the cupboard as ‘just in case someone goes broody’ eggs, before they get moved to the fridge and we eat them.
All my eggs are fertile, but you can’t get chickens out of eggs once they’ve been refridgerated, they aren’t fertile anymore. So I need some that have never been in the fridge, just in case.
Hehe, perhaps they do it on purpose just for the sake of it?
Oh wow!! You have a huge treasure hunt happening there!!
I cant wait to see pictures of the ducklings!!
I’m such a city girl, so pardon my ignorance—
How can you tell when the eggs are due to hatch? Do you know the exact date they were laid— is that how?
Also, do duck eggs taste different than chicken eggs?
And most morbid set of questions I’ve been meaning to ask— how old are they when you eat them? And how do you actually do “the deed”? Do people really swing them in a circle until their heads come off?
PS: I love the photo of the wings. It’s beautiful.
Alex, Maybe!
Tammy – I can’t wait to take them!
Becky – Duck eggs need 5 weeks of warmth to hatch, so I know when the mother duck first started sitting on the eggs. That’s when I count from. Eggs that are laid and left and don’t get sat on will just go rotten.
Yes, loads different. Richer. I’m not a fan actually, I prefer the chook eggs. Duck eggs do make brilliant cakes though and pavlova with duck egg whites is bigger and easier to work with, because of the protein structure.
We will catch them, hold them upside down until they relax and then chop their head off with an axe. It’s quick and painless.