The Duck Mystery Continues...

For the last five days we have gotten a duck egg.  Ducks don't lay as frequently as chickens do and I consider them to be a real treasure. Duck eggs have twice the nutritional value as chicken eggs and will stay fresh longer because of their thicker shell.  I was so excited when I saw that my ducks were laying! Or rather, one duck was laying, but who?

 

The problem, there is a stinking rodent getting to the eggs before me! And that makes me mad.

 

I have six ducks, in order from left to right; the light brown one is a female chocolate Indian Runner named Cocoa, then my female Cayuga named Pepper, my new male Pekin named Soda, then next is a female black crested Swedish duck named Helga, the black and white one is a male magpie duck named Mangus and lastly, my male Pekin named Salt.

 

 

You can tell the males and females apart by their curly "Drake feathers." You can see Soda's curly feather on the left of the photo below.  It also looks as if Salt has a curly Drake Feather, though it is not as distinct. 

 

In order to figure out who is laying and who is not quite yet ready, I've been locking the females in an enclosure at night to see where the eggs are in the morning.

Cayugas lay very dark grey eggs when they first start to lay and then lighten up to grey as they mature, so my first thought was that the egg-layer was NOT the Cayuga.

So, the first night, Pepper, my Cayuga stayed out of the enclosure.  Only the Indian Runner and the Crested Swedish were locked in.  The next morning, egg on the ground outside the night enclosure.

So, I thought, "well, maybe my Pekin male is not a male after all.  So last night Salt went into the enclosure, to determine if he was a she--if he was a Saltine instead of a Salt.

 

 

This morning, another egg outside the enclosure, and nibbled on by that blasted rodent.

Tonight, I guess the Cayuga is going in and then maybe I'll know the "whodunit" of the Duck Egg Mystery!