I was checking our Wood Duck nest boxes on the creek behind our house this afternoon and found 6 eggs in one of the boxes. Last year the last egg was laid on May 15th. This year, at this rate, she should be done laying her eggs between April 28 and April 30, almost 2 weeks earlier than last year. The hen will lay one egg per day until she has laid 12 - 14 eggs. After all the eggs are laid, she will start incubating the eggs. Incubation should take 29 - 30 days after the last egg has been laid. All of the eggs should hatch on the same day. The morning following the day the first egg hatches, the hen will call all of her ducklings out of the box and into the creek. I should be able to predict jump day after all of the eggs are laid. I hope to capture jump day on camera this year. I missed it last year due to a scheduled vacation.
Rick Hamlin
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Wood Duck Family
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4 comments:
Thanks for the wood duck photos! These are great! And I hope to see photos from "jump day"!
Hey Rick,
Do Hooded Mergansers do the same behavior with Eggs? I've had a Female visiting my Duck house for about 2 weeks steady, but I haven't seen her in about 3 days. Is that normal, or did she just give up the idea?
Mike,
Have you looked in the box. They do behave the same way. If I had to guess, if she was visiting for 2 weeks and then you don't see her anymore, she had time to lay all of her eggs and is probably sitting on the eggs now. She will only leave the nest for a short time in the morning to feed and then will be right back to sitting on the eggs. If you can watch the nest for a couple of hours in the early morning, I would bet you will see her leave shortly after sunrise and come back to the nest about a half hour later. You can check the box while she is away without causing any harm. I checked this box again today and she is right on schedule. Nine eggs today. So three or four more days and this one should start incubating her eggs.
I'll keep an eye out --- thanks for the info. sir!
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