We have some mallard and brown oriental geese living wild in the lake by our house. We raised one baby duck last year and it flew away and stays gone out there on the lake we aren`t totally sure which duck is the one we raised but they are all doing well and apprently happy. The neighbors also released the two brown oriental geese. They get fed daily and appear to be doing great. Lately, the ducks and one of the geese has started laying eggs. The geese are not ours and we aren`t sure if the mother duck is the one we raised or if she is theirs.
My daughter brought home a duck egg she found by the lake next to our house. At first I scolded and told her maybe she should let the mother duck take care of it. Then for some reason I had a change of heart. We don`t have a incubator so we dragged out the food dehydrator which works at a low temperature. We are running it at the lowest 95 degrees because the next temp is 105 which would be too high. The egg must be turned every 4 hours night and day. We also keep water in the bottom to keep it humid. Then she brought in a cold goose egg today because mom is not sitting very well. We asked the neighbors about the goose egg and they said yes.
It has been about a week since we found the duck egg and yesterday my daughter shined a light into the duck egg and low and behold there was a tiny heartbeat! What a thrill to see this little bitty embryo wiggle and to see the heart beating. We don`t yet know if the goose egg is fertile but time will tell.
Unfortunately, the nest where my daughter "stole" the egg has been raided by racoons.
She actually rescued this poor little creature we see alive inside the egg. :)
Does anyone have advise on egg rescues? The goose is not a good mom it turns out. She isn`t sitting on them properly and the eggs are getting raided by predators.
Karen
Wild duck and goose eggs found
hey
have her go scouting out some swan eggs for me......mute swan would be best...lol
I've hatched eggs from nests that were either in the neigbors yards and they didn't want them there/or in a spot they way didn't want a nest or kids have brought me eggs they "FOUND"
I once ended up with a batch of eggs I thought were mallard....but they were wood ducks,
they are soooo pretty,and still hang out sometimes
Wild birds lay eggs a few times a year because of the high mortality rate,nests being raided is something that happens all the time
I wouldn't encourage taking the eggs of native speices
Exotics that have been introduced in the area....that a different story
Brown chinese have escaped from someone,taking their eggs or young and
raising them
is probably better than letting them multiply and take food from native speices
so relax and enjoy the hatch
I remember the beautiful swans when we lived in florida. There were black ones and whites ones and they were gigantic! I looked at a hatchery online and a pair of babies is $170 and a pair of young male and female swans is 780.00 That is expensive!!!
Thanks for the reply!
Karen
crestedchik, The Wood Ducks are probably the most beautiful wild ducks around. The Harlequin ducks are quite pretty as are the Chinese Mandarins but so few people see them ever (a real pity). We have Wood Duck in significant numbers as well as Mallard, GrWingTeal & AmWigeon along our stream (thanks to the beaver ponds). I have a pair of each mounted on the walls of my office. I don't shoot them any more. Their numbers are gradually increasing here in the valley and on our property. This year The Audubon Society counted all time highs for the Wood Duck. I take a 30-45 minute stroll almost daily to count the duck, quail and pheasants along the stream.