How to encourage broodiness in ducks

[Corbdee]

My 2 females are a runner and a mallard. I know mallards make excellent mothers and are good at going broody, so I'm trying to get her to go broody in a nest box. she's gone there to lay every morning for about 14 days, and there are 12 eggs in there now that are hers. First of all, my runner is still laying there every day, and since runners are awful at broodiness I'll collect any eggs she lays in the box for my incubator. But I've started putting my phone camera on through a peephole I made in the nest box to be able to see what's going on, and I've noticed over the past few days both my runner and my mallard will lay and then just sit there together (which I know the laying process takes awhile) but it almost looks like they're sitting on the eggs together in the mornings when its really cold. Does that mean they're both finally going broody together? I do wonder if I leave them in their run longer before letting them out, they'll keep going back to the nest, because as soon as I let the ducks into the yard to graze, they forget the nest is even there and don't come back until I put them away for the night.

Heres some of their behavior:
Neither duck is territorial when the drakes come near or even inside the nest box, but each time they sit they'll grab nest materials around them and cover themselves/the eggs in straw (no plucking of down and feathers though)
Whenever either duck gets up or a drake comes inside, they'll scurry to cover and hide the eggs with the straw.

I'm also wondering if anyone has any suggestions for encouraging broodiness. I probably still have eggs in that nest from last month, but they just won't sit and stay.

One thing about it, though, is that when my mallard tries to surround herself with the straw, my runner pecks her like crazy. What is she doing there? I'd post a video but this site won't support it

 

[Corbdee]

If I made my questions too confusing let me know

 

[HollowOfWisps]

You can’t really encourage broodiness because it is hormonal. It’s not uncommon for ducks to make nest around them just for every day egg laying and they quite often will bury eggs. They either go broody or they don’t, but there really isn’t anything you can to to help it along.

 

[Corbdee]

You can’t really encourage broodiness because it is hormonal. It’s not uncommon for ducks to make nest around them just for every day egg laying and they quite often will bury eggs. They either go broody or they don’t, but there really isn’t anything you can to to help it along.

Ok thank you. If you've ever let your ducks (if you have any) go broody are there any characteristics I can look out for? First time letting ducks go broody for me

 

[DukesDucks]

IMO ducks aren't broody until they consistently stay on the nest. Mine leave only for brief periods to eat and drink. Otherwise they are just laying an egg every day in the same place. I would recommend you start marking your eggs. I use a pencil to number them, and keep a chart for date laid. You can start removing ones that are move than 2 weeks old.
Once the duck is truly staying on the nest, I also remove any new eggs daily. My flock are not above stealing eggs from each other. It might seem exciting to see you duck sitting on a big pile of eggs, but are you ready if they all hatched.

 

[Corbdee]

IMO ducks aren't broody until they consistently stay on the nest. Mine leave only for brief periods to eat and drink. Otherwise they are just laying an egg every day in the same place. I would recommend you start marking your eggs. I use a pencil to number them, and keep a chart for date laid. You can start removing ones that are move than 2 weeks old.
Once the duck is truly staying on the nest, I also remove any new eggs daily. My flock are not above stealing eggs from each other. It might seem exciting to see you duck sitting on a big pile of eggs, but are you ready if they all hatched.

Thank you. I think I realized I should have done something like that in the first place, because about a week ago I decided to take most of the eggs one by one and candle them and do the smell test, etc because I wasn't sure which eggs were the newer ones and which ones were older. I ended up taking half for the incubator and put the fresher-seeming half back

 

[aart]

I ended up taking half for the incubator and put the fresher-seeming half back

You should put all the real eggs in the bator,
then put a pile of fake eggs in the nest to(hopefully) entice broodiness

 

[Corbdee]

Ok update, I decided to leave the ducks inside the coop/run today instead of letting them into the yard, and in a crazy turn of events my runner hen was the one who basically sat on the nest for the whole day (minus a 10 or so minute break here and there). My mallard also joined in on the sitting a quarter of the time, which is still peculiar to me, but it seems natural.

Anyway, I finally let them out this evening for 30 minutes because they were dying to, but once I put them back in the run, my runner pretty much forgot about her eggs that she literally sat on the entire day. I watched them for awhile but she never ended up going back so I left. Hopefully either her or my mallard will eventually sit back down but will the eggs be okay until then? I felt them when the ducks were grazing and they were definitely warm, but it'll get to 30* Fahrenheit tonight.

 

[Corbdee]

You should put all the real eggs in the bator,
then put a pile of fake eggs in the nest to(hopefully) entice broodiness

Ive tried it before with two ceramic eggs but both times I tried it, the next morning they were rolled outside of the nest box as if they could tell the difference

 

[Corbdee]

Sorry I have so many questions and not many of them have been answered yet. Today I kept them in again, and both my mallard and runner are sitting again, haven’t stopped since I checked. Starting to get excited because they seem broody, they even started getting territorial when other ducks came - also I added more straw and my mallard hissed at me


The thing is, now, I may be starting to pinpoint why my runner was pecking at my mallard whenever she’d try and move around the nesting materials. It almost looks like my runner is the one who’s more dominant with the broodiness - she’s the one who’s sat the longest, and is slightly more territorial. It looks like my mallard is trying to go broody as well but even though my runner will tolerate her sitting there with her, she won’t let her brood the eggs if that makes sense. I was planning on caging off that corner of the run where the nest box is, and put both hens in there once broody. If what is said about my runner and my mallard is true, should I keep them separate or see if they can hatch the eggs together?