Duck nest

I was mowing yesterday, and was about to go to the smaller field, and a duck flew out right in front of me. They wait until the last possible second to leave. I knew there was a nest right in front of the tractor. Sure enough about 10 or so eggs. If I kept up mowing the duck would probably not returned to the nest and the eggs would have probably cooled enough to kill the egg. I decided to come back in a few weeks to finish mowing. How long can the duck stay off of the nest, and not hurt the eggs? What would you have done? Stan

The duck will come back if you quit. They do go for water also. I'd backed off. The duck will get used to you mowing and I'd just mow a big circle around her and say "Howdy Mom."

I have done the same thing for turkey nests while mowing hay. However I have never seen the hen return to the nest. Always the next day when I checked, the eggs were gone. Fox, coon or whatever.

Wild ducks seem to be very smart and resilient in situations like that. Its likely no harm was done, it seems to take more than that to scare em off, at least with ones like that here.

A few years ago, I saw the ducks in our small pond, with young, and wanted to take a few photos of the young for an elderly person to enjoy. So I briefly interrupted nature to do so, and caught the entire brood, put em in a large pan of water and took some photos, they were a little frightened at first, one of them was really cool, I got the best photos of him, kind of made my day how friendly he was.

When I first grabbed them, and they are fast, the mother took off, landed in the nearby large pond, which is connected by a creek, surrounded by brush and other forms of cover. She turned around and swam up the creek, to do some "reconnoitering", I saw her, she was not going far from the last place she saw the young. Well I brought them all back and set em free in the large pond, where the mouth of the creek enters it, and they happily swam out and the mother (hen) joined them immediately, she was on watch the entire time and I had taken them 500 yds away at the furthest.

I called him "Joe Cool" and I think the photo corroborates that LOL

I would have run over them. I kill a turkey now and then with the haybine that way. 2 points when I get the eggs,extra points when I kill the hen.

Whatever you do,don't pick them up. My cousin did from a turkey nest. He took them to his son in law who had an incubator and they hatched them. Somebody found out and turned them in to the DNR. They ended up in court over that one. It was the son in law who was in trouble over it for hatching them. $150 fine,but my cousin paid it since he had gathered them up and took them to him. He asked the DNR officer what he was supposed to do next time. The officer said call us or just run over them next time around.

So,like I said,I'd run over them.

Ducks and geese 33 days if I remember correctly.
Rick

yes, run over them, that'll teach 'em. don't mess with rrlund and family.

have a hollow tree along drive, have had squirrels, pilliated woodpeckers, owls and this year a woodduck has set up house keeping...she'll probably be back

With 10 eggs she might still be laying. If that is the case she can stay off the nest all day.

If she started setting already 30 min to a couple of hours is OK depending on how hot the tempature is that day.

You did the right thing by leaving the nest alone.

rrlund, is your cousin 5 yrs old? he had to ask what to do next time? tell him to read some of these posts in search of that elusive answer. in the meantime, why don't you go rest your knees on an operators manual tuff guy.

I wound up with 2 bottle calves last year.......Eggs make for a nice shiny coat....

If she was "setteing" (incubating) those eggs ahe wouldn't have "flown off". She would have pulled the crippled duck flapping on the ground routine, and stayed a little close. My guess is she is still laying. Take the kids back in three weeks and have another look.

I would handle it the same way you are.