Double Brooding Ducks...argh!!

[Bleenie]

I have these great nest boxes for my Muscovies, they're solid, closed in with a hole in the front for an entrance/exit. I have the BEST hatch rates in them, one of my girls just hated 12 babies out of one today (she still has 1 egg under her but might be bad).

Zima went broody in one of these boxes, they're about 2" x 1.5"....

Zima was dutifully sitting on her eggs last night and when i checked on everyone before bed, i pulled one girl out of zimas box & off zima....well what do I find behind this girl!?!? ANOTHER GIRL!!!

3 muscovy hens stuffed themselves into this ONE box! How can i stop this craziness?? I just built 2 new open top boxes for them, moved one hen into one, she's stayed like a good girl. they're ignoring the other new box & eggs in it though. Hopefully Nibb;es will abandon her box soon so i can TRY to move one there, but this is driving me nuts...

I want Zima to have a good hatch, this is her 2nd time brooding this year and her first clutch didnt hatch but a few.

 

[L0rraine]

I have the same problem here. I thought building beautiful individual nest boxes (big enough for only one duck) would help solve the problem. No such luck. It really does mess up the hatches having competing broodies. I kept at them until they were both FINALLY sitting on their own nests -- and then came the babies!. Mom with babies (her eggs were done hatching three days before the others) kept abandoning her babies to 'help' sit on the other ducks eggs -- and the babies all came in tow. Soooo, nest with one duck and nine eggs was suddenly nest with two ducks and babies all piled on top of each other. I could separate for the day, but can't partition things enough ways when everyone else gets tucked in for the night. Would patiently sit with the two females until everyone seemed settled in for the night (the two Mom's are partitioned from the rest of the crew), but even peeking in at first light in the morning the one nest was full of everyone again. I got one new baby from the second nest (and one that never made it out of the egg -- it shrunk wrapped in all the commotion) and took the remaining ones and put them in the incubator to see what happens. The two moms and eight babies have moved out of the nests now and are sharing mom duty on the straw outside the nest. Next time I'll try to be even better prepared.

 

[Bleenie]

I usually take the babies away after they're all dried. it seems mean but i want all my new girls to know me as 'the nice lady that feeds us" and not run screaming everytime i go outside, lol.

Zima has just recently started brooding but i will have to get another closed in box built or something and transfer some of her eggs, i think she has too many anyway.

 

[L0rraine]

Quote:
I know..., I'm soooo torn between my happiness and that of my broodies. Today I had to take the youngest duckling who was three days behind the others (and one sibling who looked just like her) and put them in a brooder because she couldn't keep up with all the others. And like you said -- now they think I'm Mom (even though they spent hours, and days, with the Mom ducks). I gave them a chance this evening to be back with their two Moms and they picked me!!!! So now they're keepers whether that was the plan or not.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

Bleenie, I have 4 Muscovy girls sitting on one nest. They're driving me absolutely bonkers! We're taking some of the eggs off the pile because we don't want the eggs on the bottom to become smooshed. Its a daily thing. You think someone would move to a new nesting area....oh NOOOOOOOOOOOOO that would be too easy.

LOL