Where did our duck eggs go!?

Before I begin I must state that my terminology on this topic is not great so bare with me and by all means please correct me! So on one of our two lakes we have a duck house (See attachment) held in the centre by a rope from each bank, so we stuffed some hay into into each of the 3 compartments and not expecting any great results we cast the house and let it be for a few weeks. However around 3-4 weeks ago we witnessed what i think was 2 mallards and a brown duck (Which I'm assuming was the female) fighting. We thought this was the two male duck fighting over the female duck, so we left them to it and a few days later, low and behold, we had a duck sitting in one of the compartments! As we're not the most knowledgeable on keeping and caring for ducks we just let them be assuming nature will work its way. 2-3 weeks passed and we would, from the bank, peer into the house to see if she was still sitting on her eggs, she would come out the house once or twice a day for whatever reason and during this period we peered, again from the bank, into the house, we either saw three or four eggs in the house. So she had been on her eggs for quite a while now and we assumed that they would hatch come the next week or maybe two, however earlier today, as usual, we checked and sure she was still sitting there, but then what must have been only 4-5 hours later we checked again and she and the eggs were gone! Absolutely no sign of her or the eggs! We took the boat out and checked out the house where she had just been, I looked inside and there was absolutely nothing there, I gently felt around for anything but all I could feel were the imprints of where the eggs had been and a few feathers which I assume she had put for warmth? There was no sign of any form of disruption such as messed up hay or other feathers! I'm completely perplexed as to where they could have gotten, no broken shells, water surrounding the whole house, no torque rope for something to climb across and hardly any space on the edge for another bird to land on...? Please help me find a possible reason for the total absence of eggs or ducklings in the house!? Have the eggs hatched and the mother disposed of the shells... but then there'd be less than a day old ducklings wondering about...? I am totally stumped on this, please help!
Kind regards,
Adam

Just to add, I live in the East of the UK if that helps at all

A snake perhaps? They often swallow the eggs whole and some of them swim quite well.

Marissa Creston wrote:A snake perhaps? They often swallow the eggs whole and some of them swim quite well.

I thought this at one point, but how large would this snake have to be to eat at least 3 eggs, as well as this the house has quite a large lip for a snake to have to climb up and over to get the eggs and would they attempt this during the middle of the day!? Also surely they would cause some disturbance of the hay? Still so confused!

Awfully rare to get snakes in the UK, unless you're talking about exotic pet escapees and I'd have thought it would still be too cold for them.

Rats? They're good swimmers but I'd have expected you would find eggshells and things (and one rat wouldn't have eaten the lot!).

I think anything larger (fox or dog) you would see evidence. And anything that can fly (buzzard or whatever) wouldn't have taken the eggs as well.

Quite the mystery. Do you or your neighbors have any children? I could see an impetuous one absconding with those eggs on a dare!

Charli Wilson wrote:Awfully rare to get snakes in the UK, unless you're talking about exotic pet escapees and I'd have thought it would still be too cold for them.

Rats? They're good swimmers but I'd have expected you would find eggshells and things (and one rat wouldn't have eaten the lot!).

I think anything larger (fox or dog) you would see evidence. And anything that can fly (buzzard or whatever) wouldn't have taken the eggs as well.

So if it isn't any of that lot what on Earth could it be!? The only theory I have at the moment is that the mother got bored or something of that nature so rolled the eggs into the lake, but do ducks do that? and why would they!?

Marissa Creston wrote:Quite the mystery. Do you or your neighbours have any children? I could see an impetuous one absconding with those eggs on a dare!

Good idea my friend but that would definitely not be the case, the house is essentially a few steps from the house and family and I were wondering about all day so there's no chance a little one could've got the eggs, also they would have had to either got a boat and rowed to the house, which there was no boat present this particular day or swam, and with the current condition of the lake there's no way somebody could have swam it, let alone without making noise. Furthermore from what I know there aren't any young ones around that would do such a thing, and also the eggs were not in sight and we didn't tell too many people either? Still stumped unfortunately but thanks for the suggestion, keep them coming!  

Mink?

Although the most obvious answer is that the eggs hatched and she took them off somewhere else - is there another pond or river nearby?  Not sure about the shells though.

Hester Winterbourne wrote:Mink?

Although the most obvious answer is that the eggs hatched and she took them off somewhere else - is there another pond or river nearby?  Not sure about the shells though.

Maybe yes, there is another larger lake less than 20m or so away, however we would have easily been able to see them wondering about surely, the chicks would be only 4-6 hours old at this moment so would they be able swim as well as walk to the other lake? And as you said, what about the shells?

The only theory I have at the moment is that the mother got bored or something of that nature so rolled the eggs into the lake, but do ducks do that? and why would they!?

Actually, ducks will inspect their eggs and roll any rotting ones out of the nest to keep them from bursting and contaminating the rest of the clutch. So that could certainly be a possibility.

Marissa Creston wrote:

The only theory I have at the moment is that the mother got bored or something of that nature so rolled the eggs into the lake, but do ducks do that? and why would they!?

Actually, ducks will inspect their eggs and roll any rotting ones out of the nest to keep them from bursting and contaminating the rest of the clutch. So that could certainly be a possibility.

Oh right okay, but would all 3 maybe 4 eggs be rotten at the same time?

It is quite possible that none of the eggs were fertile. It actually wouldn't surprise me given the size of the clutch; most ducks won't set until they have at least eight or so, but an older bird might not produce enough eggs to fill out a clutch. And two or three weeks is plenty of time for them to go noticeably off. I have never had a duck roll out more than one or two at a time. But that doesn't mean that yours didn't push them all out. Hard to know. A pity regardless. Toward better luck next time!

Marissa Creston wrote:It is quite possible that none of the eggs were fertile. It actually wouldn't surprise me given the size of the clutch; most ducks won't set until they have at least eight or so, but an older bird might not produce enough eggs to fill out a clutch. And two or three weeks is plenty of time for them to go noticeably off. I have never had a duck roll out more than one or two at a time. But that doesn't mean that yours didn't push them all out. Hard to know. A pity regardless. Toward better luck next time!

Thank you for that, by the looks of it that's the only reasonable explanation at the moment! It's a great shame that that might've happened but hey ho, its nature, hopefully there'll be some new eggs appearing soon!

The same thing happened to us. Our duck had layed her eggs in the planter on the front porch. She was sitting for 3 days only leaving to briefly get nourishment. She had covered the babies in her down, and she was there last night.
This morning all the eggs are gone, as is mama duck.
We have owls in our neighborhood. I do believe that with their talons, and babies to feed, that the owl stole the eggs, and possibly the mother got away.
We have seen them kill a lot of song birds in our yard.
It is very sad to lose this special gift from mother nature, as we had named her and loved thinking about the baby ducks.  

For what it's worth, I've caught my turkey hens CARRYING eggs before.  They nudge the eggs up into their elbows, the 'scoops' of their wings, and hold the eggs against their bodies.  I had a turkey hen who was raiding my chicken lay boxes and somehow transporting the eggs to her nest.  I would find occasional broken eggs along the way.  I was perplexed until I picked her up one day, moved her aside, and when I set her down nearby, eggs tumbled out of her wings!  I've also watched them pick their babies up and carrying them that way, too.  Maybe if a hen doesn't feel safe, or finds a better nest, she will transport her eggs to a new location.  That's my most hopeful guess