Mandarin fertility

[KandBinMN]

One of my female Mandarins has finally started to lay eggs, but the drake is in his eclipse moult already and she won't let the drake from the other pair near her. My question is whether his moult affects his fertility. I'll be so bummed if the eggs are duds.

[Duckman33mn]

I would give her less that a 50/50 chance of the eggs being fertile.

Mike

[KandBinMN]

Thanks, but I'm so bummed. I have two eggs from my other pair in the incubator, I'll keep hoping for them to turn out, but I was so hoping for split to white offspring from the other pair. She's so proud of her egg too as she is a very tame pet and loves to interact with us. I refuse to buy full grown Mandies also, they're just too wild for my taste, I like to had raise them myself.

[richbar]

Every now and then you get lucky, I just took a clutch of eggs from one of my mandarins whose mate is in the eclipse phase and 11 of 12 were fertile. Good luck. The longer I work with wild type waterfowl the more I learn. Some birds just don't follow the rules.

[KandBinMN]

I have 4 eggs in the incubator yet, haven't candeled them. He was pretty amorous if I remember correctly, when she started laying. She always acted pretty uninterested in him though (she thinks she's human). My friend Charlie had some wild duck eggs that were fertile too when the male had gone into eclipse already. I'll be sure to update this in another week or so.

[Evy]

A lot of our wild WF seemed to molt early and / or lay late this year.
I'll be interested to know if you're successful in carrying the eggs to term in the incubator. In 20 years of raising Mandarins, I never have been able to get them past 2-3 weeks. They do fine if left for the duck to incubate & taken in the last week to hatch. Others... Woodduck, Teal, Mergansers, etc... don't seem to be a problem, although nothing does it better than the bird herself. I have the 2nd clutch of Smew hatching at this moment. Late in the season for them, too.

[KandBinMN]

Hmmm, interesting. This is the first time I've ever had Mandarin eggs to incubate. I would have let her do it, but she ate two of them, so I gave her a plastic egg and a Mallard egg. They're not so dumb, she ate the Mallard egg too. I tried giving two of the Mandarin eggs over to other breed ducks, along with their own and they of course ate the Mandarin eggs, hence, incubator time. I'm not exactly counting on anything though. I think I'll go candle them right now that I think about it.

[Leo]

Hmmm, interesting. This is the first time I've ever had Mandarin eggs to incubate. I would have let her do it, but she ate two of them, so I gave her a plastic egg and a Mallard egg. They're not so dumb, she ate the Mallard egg too. I tried giving two of the Mandarin eggs over to other breed ducks, along with their own and they of course ate the Mandarin eggs, hence, incubator time. I'm not exactly counting on anything though. I think I'll go candle them right now that I think about it.

You should get a couple of silkie hens...they make wonderful setters and mothers. I hatch my call duck eggs under hens.

[Evy]

Hmmm, interesting. This is the first time I've ever had Mandarin eggs to incubate. I would have let her do it, but she ate two of them, so I gave her a plastic egg and a Mallard egg. They're not so dumb, she ate the Mallard egg too. I tried giving two of the Mandarin eggs over to other breed ducks, along with their own and they of course ate the Mandarin eggs, hence, incubator time. I'm not exactly counting on anything though. I think I'll go candle them right now that I think about it.

What's interesting here is that I've never , ever, seen a duck eat an egg. Chickens are nortorious for doing it but waterfowl won't even sample a broken one to my knowledge. Are you sure something else isn't the culprit (rodents or Starlings, etc. ) or that they just aren't getting broken? They will throw a bad or broken egg out of a nest.

[richbar]

Evy, I agree with you. I've had them throw eggs out of the nests and sometimes they will have holes in them but they would just be laying on the ground and as they were when they were tossed. I can't say the same for chickens and gamebirds. I've had to resort to placing wooden eggs in the nesst from time to time to draw their attention and frusttrate them into leaving the eggs alone. But never with ducks. And I also agree that the eggs they toss are bad ones. I've never seen a part formed duckling in a tossed egg either. Rich

[Evy]

Evy, I agree with you. I've had them throw eggs out of the nests and sometimes they will have holes in them but they would just be laying on the ground and as they were when they were tossed. I can't say the same for chickens and gamebirds. I've had to resort to placing wooden eggs in the nesst from time to time to draw their attention and frusttrate them into leaving the eggs alone. But never with ducks. And I also agree that the eggs they toss are bad ones. I've never seen a part formed duckling in a tossed egg either. Rich

Hi Rich,

Ever notice how ground nesters will roll one out & if you return it, they roll it back out again? It's always clear or dead. One person brought to my attention that a clear or dead egg doesn't hold heat & the bird must sense it when she returns to her nest. Makes sense to me.

[KandBinMN]

Interesting. I did see a mouse in the duck shed the other night. But no birds get in. I have a Black Swede that would eat her own eggs every day if I didn't take the new one very soon after she laid it. I give oyster shell every day and she just loves eggs. If my Mallard hens see me give an egg to the cats, they come running to try to get the shell even though they have plenty of oyster shell. I agree though on the eggs rolled out. They're not dumb, they are supplied with good instincts and that is part of what makes them so interesting and there is always something to learn.
Glad to know that about the Mandarin eggs not hatching in the incubator. I'll never try bidding on any then. I don't like to buy fully grown ducks, as I like to hand raise them myself, but it would be a waste of money if I can't get them to incubate. I'll just hope for Blondie and Ming Ming to be more broody when they are both two years old. I'm raising a few Silkies too, are they good for hatching Mandarin, or is it too low humidity?

[KandBinMN]

Now that I know there is a mouse in the shed, I'll think twice about reaching blindly into the Mandarin nest boxes to check for eggs!! I keep the feed in RubberMaid totes, so not really concerned there.
Off to buy some of those safe tip traps tomorrow. The mouse goes in, the trap tips from the weight and closes them in - can't hurt the ducks with it.
And to think, I have a cat who comes in there to visit every day while I clean.

[Leo]

Interesting. I did see a mouse in the duck shed the other night. But no birds get in. I have a Black Swede that would eat her own eggs every day if I didn't take the new one very soon after she laid it. I give oyster shell every day and she just loves eggs. If my Mallard hens see me give an egg to the cats, they come running to try to get the shell even though they have plenty of oyster shell. I agree though on the eggs rolled out. They're not dumb, they are supplied with good instincts and that is part of what makes them so interesting and there is always something to learn.
Glad to know that about the Mandarin eggs not hatching in the incubator. I'll never try bidding on any then. I don't like to buy fully grown ducks, as I like to hand raise them myself, but it would be a waste of money if I can't get them to incubate. I'll just hope for Blondie and Ming Ming to be more broody when they are both two years old. I'm raising a few Silkies too, are they good for hatching Mandarin, or is it too low humidity?

I have better luck with chickens hatching my call duck eggs than I do in the incubator. You could always sprinkle the eggs with warm water when the hen gets off the nest to eat.

[CAWoodduck]

Evy,

My hen pintail did the exact same thing, i would find one egg out of the nest box each day, so i marked it and put it back to see if she would roll the same one out, and she did!

My biggest problem this year was hens kicking eggs out of the boxes, more of a territorial thing i guess. Next season i will have a bunch of boxes up, i think i had way to few this year as i ran out of time to build more, but it will be a great winter project.

As for ducks eating eggs, my ring teal seem to like them as i have seen them carrying the shell from an egg that was booted out of the nest box, and while cleaning the pond i have found egg shell remnants.

I do like the ring teal though, i have two hens on nests right now, and its suppose to hit a little over a 100 degrees this week.........perfect timing :(