Mother mallard

[biojefferson]

There is a mother mallard duck that has nested in my front yard in a flower garden. She's laid nine eggs. With the documented 28 day incubation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallard#Breeding_behaviour), I'm expecting some of them to start hatching in mid to later April. Does anyone know how long it takes a clutch of eggs to hatch? That is, how long

Comments

[etherealizabeth]

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2000-05/957231178.Zo.r.html

[biojefferson]

interesting, but I still don't see how long between when the first egg hatches and when the last egg hatches

[etherealizabeth]

There's no way to tell that. That would be random chance. That's like asking what the birth time between twins is - anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 hours. Just depends.

[biojefferson]

yeah, you're probably right. I was just wondering about the average time