Blue-winged are very easy to accommodate and can be relied up to breed in their first year. They have a strong preference for natural nesting sites but will also use ground nest boxes. The natural sites can be surprisingly difficult to locate even in relatively small collections. Eggs are laid on consecutive days, the first egg is not covered and it is at this point that the nest is easiest to find, once the second egg is laid the female will start to add some down to the nest and will certainly cover the eggs with leaves and grass making it very difficult to find. Even when the female is on the nest they are difficult to find being masters of camouflage. The first egg can be expected any time from the middle of April and if clutches are removed for artificial incubation you can expect to get three and sometimes four clutches from a female. The male will go into his eclipse plumage in early June and at this point the female will also stop laying. The eggs are quite elongated and creamy olive in colour and require handling with care as they are surprisingly delicate. The first clutch will usually consist of ten to twelve eggs, subsequent clutches will be slightly smaller and incubation is about twenty three days.

The small black and yellow ducklings are delightful and relatively easy to rear on crumbs but care needs to be taken in the early stages when they can easily get a chill and die. Once they are about a week old they will thrive and losses from this age on are very unusual and the ducklings will grow rapidly. As adolescents the young males and females are virtually indistinguishable and the males are very late obtaining their first breeding plumage that may not be attained until January. The breeding plumage will be attained some months earlier in subsequent years.