9 weeks and going.

[Wilber256]

Hello everyone, Thank you for allowing me to join your group.
I have a question about my muscovy hen. She has been laying on a empty nest for 9 weeks and looks like she will keep going.

The male appears to be doing his part she has a raw place on the back of her neck from him riding her but no eggs. She will come out of her nest house very rarely in fact out of 9 weeks I have seen her 3 times out of her nest.

Being new to ducks is this normal? Should we remove her from her nest and board it up to keep her out? We feed her inside or she won't come out to eat. She went 2-3 weeks without eating but is eating some now.

Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Steven Bussell]

How old are they? She setting on a empty nest?

 

[Miss Lydia]

That is a long time to be sitting and only coming out rarely. Take her out destroy the nest and keep her from going back to it. She has probably lost a lot of weight and isn't in the best of health now so poultry vitamins and some really good quality feed is a must. My Muscovy's can be belligerent about giving up their nesting too. Is she old enough to lay? It's strange for them to go broody before laying.

 

[Wilber256]

Thanks for the reply. This is her second summer here i guess she is 2-1/2. She laid eggs last year but we have not found any eggs this year. Being from Northeast Mississippi it gets warm here in late March early April so she has had plenty of time to lay eggs.

We have a floating 6 room duck house to help prevent predators from getting them at night. I may have to take it out of the water or board up all 6 rooms to keep her out.
She is fed crushed corn every afternoon early evening we can open the closed side of the room and feed her inside the room/nesting compartment. She went several days without eating but cleans up the bowl now and for the past couple weeks.

Thanks for your help we will get her out and remove the straw then close up the opening to that room If she moves to another room for the same purpose then we will close all rooms or pull it out of the water and stand it on it's side.

Regards

 

[Miss Lydia]

I bet you have mink they will swim out for tasty eggs. Yep for her health now she needs to get on with life.

 

[Wilber256]

Thanks Miss Lydia, I guess that's possible, I don't know what a mink looks like, don't think I recall ever seeing something here that I could not identify.
Are they nocturnal?
Last year she would roll/push her eggs out of the room into the water we just figured she was luney like the rest of us.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well she just may have. They can sure be whacky when broody.

Minks are members of the weasel family and can be lethal predators. also musk rats would probably feast on duck eggs and they swim.

 

[Wilber256]

Well, looks like my floating duck house may not help that much. I assumed racoons, foxs, dogs etc. would be my biggest problem. I did not realize so many critters would swim out for eggs or ducks. Thanks for your help.

 

[Miss Lydia]

A secure house on land where you can lock them in a night would be ideal. A lot of predators will swim if they know a meal is out there. Google mink and other swimming predators in your state . And