I have a male and a female duck that have been coming to my yard every day. The male and female are always together. I have never seen them come separately. The female started laying eggs about 2 weeks ago. She has laid 4 eggs so far. The problem is that she started laying her eggs in a large bowl of water that I keep outside for my dog. The dog no longer uses it for her water dish because of this. The eggs are soft, not hard like I would expect them to be. The female has not shown any interest in the eggs. She has not tended to them at all. I'm trying to figure out if it is normal for duck eggs to be soft, is it normal for a duck to lay eggs sporadically like that and why would she keep laying her eggs in water? Can someone help me with this issue because I am not sure what to do?
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From the wildlife coalition. A mother duck will lay an egg or two every day until all 7 to 15 eggs have been laid. She wants all the eggs to hatch at the same time so the mother duck does not start sitting on the nest and incubating the eggs until all are laid. Eggs hatch about 28 days after incubation (sitting on the eggs) begins.
I would leave the eggs alone. She will come back
Do you still have water in the bowl? If so, do not try to move the eggs but you can take an old sock or just a rag and lay it in the water so that it hangs over the side of the dish and all the water will run out (via the sock) and the duck may come back and finish laying her eggs.
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