Mallard ducks: licence to take eggs and rear and release chicks (GL13)

This general licence lets you take mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) eggs for incubation, rearing in captivity and releasing later in the same year.

This licence only applies if you are:

• the land owner, occupier or anyone authorised by the owner or occupier
• authorised in writing by the local authority
• authorised in writing by any England, Scotland or Wales conservation body, a district board for fisheries or local fisheries committee
• authorised in writing by the Environment Agency, a water undertaker or a sewerage undertaker

You do not need to apply for this general licence but you must meet its conditions and follow its instructions. To meet the conditions you must:

• only take eggs by hand
• not take eggs after 31 March
• release any bird hatched from the egg into the wild no later than 31 July, unless it is disabled or has died
• destroy any unhatched eggs by 31 July
• not sell the eggs or any birds hatched from them