I just found a duck incubating its eggs in a bush area right next to my swimming pool.
What should I do? I have a cat too, which was eagerly looking at the duck when it went for a swim in the pool.
I tried reaching my gloved hand into the bush area and the duck bit me as a defence mechanism.
If/When they hatch, is that a safe time to have a wildlife carer relocate them?
Kill and eat the duck, God sent you free food so take the opportunity
That seems a little far-fetched
>kill the duck
>go to federal prison
yikes
Actual OP here. The duck came back and is doing fine.
It's very easy to prevent my cats from going to the pool area. Not so sure about the neighborhood cats, but I think there's only one and it's old.
Kill the neighbors cat.
Then kill yours to seem like you were targeted.
OP should kill the duck just to trigger idiots like you.
He can kill everything to unlock the annihilation route
You can cage the neighbors cat and ship it to a shelter
The duck is going to continue laying eggs and leaving until she has about a dozen or so.
The embryo doesn't start to grow until they reach about 95 degrees. So she lays one egg a day until she has a full clutch then starts incubating so they all hatch at the same time- eggs only take 3 weeks to hatch, if she started incubating the first egg as she laid them that chick would hatch when other eggs were only half way done.
Another anon had a duck build a nest on his back porch every year.
He pulled the eggs and replaced with ping pong balls, incubated them and returned them when they hatched. He also built a pen around her once she started sitting on the eggs to protect her from wildlife.
Do not move the nest though. Leave it as she built it.
And what about when they hatch?
I read ducklings can't exit pools. This duck is nested about 2 meters away from one. What should I do?
Build a pen around her once she settles down and starts sitting on her clutch.
Buy a bag of feed and provide a water bowl and wait.
Build ramp out of pool for ducklings.
you make all that sound easier than it is. i'm not a diy person
Not that anon but a ramp out of the pool should be easily doable, ducklings are light so a piece of board that goes into the water at an angle should be sufficient. It might be a good opportunity for you to try DIY, you already have a reason now.
OP here - duck is dead and eggs are gone. RIP
Kill your cat to even the playing field
Find out what kind of duck it is. If it's native, kill your cat. If it's domestic or invasive, kill your cat and eat the duck.
Cook the duck and make an omellete from the eggs
you can't omelette an old fertilized egg wtf
there are unspeakable horrors inside, the yolk is half-gone and the white is half-duck
That's an actual Asian dish called Balut.
I'm not posting pictures, people can find it on their own.
What would happen if you replaced the eggs with fertilized chicken eggs? Would the duck notice before the hatched?
It's 6pm here. The duck is gone, nowhere in sight. The eggs are still there.
Is this normal? Or is it likely to not come back? Pretty certain it hasn't become pray.
sometimes ducks are pretty fickle the mood to brood comes and goes with them easier than geese. If they don't like a nice they'll just ditch it.
Are you in aus/nz or something?
Because it's not hatching season up here.
Check archive for ft. Duck.
>Are you in aus/nz or something?
yea
she has to eat
give her a golf ball
Simple. Keep the cat indoors.
My cats aren't the only two in my neighborhood. I saw the neighbor's black tomcat drinking out of the pool yesterday.
Also I heard swimming pool water is bad for ducks.
Put out a water bowl,
Do you know how the cats get in? Is it something simple like putting a brick under the gate?
Preventing my cats from accessing the pool area is fairly straightforward. They're not smart enough to find alternate routes.
As for the neighbor's cat, no chance of blocking it off. I think its old so it might not go out of its way to find it.
The duck is hidden within the overgrown shrubbery and vines around the wall. Pic related.
The cats already know the duck is there by scent alone.
Also if I move my hand close, it bites me. I fed it some lettuce but it's kind of hard to get it close.