Mystery egg thief...ideas on who?

We have something stealing or more often breaking open a muscovy duck egg here and there. It gets broken open and usually the main part of the egg is still inside. The hole is anywhere from toonie-sized to a half open shell lengthwise. The thief is only attacking the nests that don't have a setting hen on of course and so are not always guarded. I am not sure when in the day/night the nests are being raided.

We know that the dog still gets one every once in a while, as we have caught her with whole eggs on occasion, but she cleans them out really well when she does steal any. She gets reprimanded quite well when she gets caught. We know that the eggs thing it isn't all her doing.

Not sure where you are located but have you considered rodents? Once in awhile we set an egg up and forget to take it in. I have come back to find a toonie sized hole and it was the mice

Yes, we considered rodents. We were wondering if a mouse would go after a duck egg, but I suppose that they can chew through just about anything they put their minds to. I was wondering if it could be a rat. I certainly hope not, but it isn't out of the question out in the country. Once I found an egg at least 6' away from a nest.

I wanted to ask here just in case it might be something else. We did have a couple of skunks around, something that we haven't had in years. The dog usually keeps them away, but maybe with the birds all over, the smell is attracting them here. Thing is only one duck smelled lightly of skunk once and the area where the nests are never smells of skunk. We just wanted a second opinion (or more) to see what we might be having to go after, since we never see it.

I wish our cat would come back. I guess it is high time to bring in replacements, then.

Crow or ravine, although they well carry away the egg most times

Skunks will do that and also remember Skunks will kill Chickens and ducks and can kill young Turkey

Hope you find what it is

I have had male ducks do that. I wonder when you say sometimes the contents are still in there if it isnt another duck doing it, more to destroy the nest than a predator for hunger? If it was a skunk, raven, etc, they would most likley eat the insides and then leave the shell for evidence.

Magpies do that here, Today I found a duck egg like that out in the middle of the chicken/duck yard , a hole the size of a quarter... I picked it up thinking it was a fresh egg and it had the hole, was going to toss it, but low and behold there was a duckling trying to hatch. I dont have any idea where this egg came from as the known nests are a long ways away from where I found the egg... SOMETHING packed this egg and either tried to open it or dropped it and left and the duckling had pipped a nice size hole.... best go check the incubator to see if the little guy made it, I helped it out of the shell as it was all dried up....

I've had magpies and crows do that. The ravens just fly off with the eggs but the magpies and crows just go in poke a hole eat a bit of it

Hidden River wrote:I have had male ducks do that. I wonder when you say sometimes the contents are still in there if it isnt another duck doing it, more to destroy the nest than a predator for hunger? If it was a skunk, raven, etc, they would most likley eat the insides and then leave the shell for evidence.

Hidden's answer matches my experience best. Most egg predators tend to clean out the shell or just take the egg away. Could easily be another duck or a drake.

Magpie or crow is a possibility though.

This is all interesting. It is confirming some of our suspicions. We haven't seen a raven around for quite some time now and no crows. There were about 4 in spring, but they all moved on.

The skunks when we encountered them, generally were kept to the outside of the pasture or in the field, so unless they snuck in when the dog was busy elsewhere, they should not have had a chance. She is pretty thorough when it comes to keeping "outsiders" out.

As far as magpies go, the kids said that they have been seeing them very rarely now too...just on occasion. We have never seen them in the barn (one nest is in there), but I suppose that doesn't mean they haven't started going into it when someone isn't watching. The ducks, however, are always around and now that they have discovered the cow's leftover morning chop, they are in there as soon as the cow goes out. They also have full access to the newest nests, as we only have so many things around to cover them up.

When the eggs get damaged, it is only one at a time. Would the drakes only attack one at a time? Now, is there any way to deal with them? We do have three of our nests (out of the 5) which have such small holes that the drakes can't get into the nest areas. Considering all...it could be the drakes.

Maybe we need to get some more large nursery pots to cut tiny doors in for the new nests. That only works for those in the shade though. I imagine in the sun that they would get pretty hot.

We are currently watching one of the nests for hatching. It should be any day. We are then planning to pen them separately (keeping the drakes out of the mix) as we can.