TheSeedObsesser
Deeply Rooted
No idea were the claim of them being great layers came from - they are most certainty not, that's why we have the Pekings. I'm surprised that your ducks didn't have good mothering abilities - are they originally from a hatchery? That could have a major impact on their behavior. The mother ducks usually don't do great if they're working on their first clutch ever. For us, usually the mother ducks can hatch nearly %100 of their eggs - unless they have way too many eggs in the nest to turn properly. Also, the personalities of the ducks vary just as much as dog's do; some just don't make good mothers, those are the ones that we would cull. From what little (useful!) experience that I have, some dirty and rotten eggs are a usual occurrence in waterfowl. We have a rock jutting out of the pond that we just through them at. Originally we tried spiking the eggs with a fork so that they would sink under the water's surface - not smart as they are explosive and very smelly. After that incident my urine smelled like rotten eggs for a few weeks - don't know why? My experience with Muscovies has been just about polar opposite than yours. They'll sit on there clean, perfectly arranged eggs around the clock until they hatch. We've even got an accidental rooster from a batch of duck eggs before! Sadly this is the last year with ours too. We are getting serious about farming for profit and my parents don't want to raise Muscovies for one indescribable reason or another, they'd prefer to raise the ordinary ducks that are about x3 dirtier, too talkative, and rapidly cause a hardpan and soil erosion. Oh well, when I get my own farm...
