Duck that digs holes?

[featherfinder]

My white runner just started laying here about a month ago and since she has started she digs a hole first then lays her egg in the hole she dug. Her holes are about a foot wide and 6 inches deep so they are good size holes. She will use the same one for about a week and then make another and keep trying to hide them on me. I have never heard of a duck digging a hole like that before. Is this normal and does anyone else have a duck like this? She had straw and a house and everything but still digs a hole. My other girls use the house and make a nest with straw or bring the straw outside so there is materials for her to use.

 

[erinszoo]

Our buff x runner drake digs holes ... obviously he's not laying eggs in them but he does dig them. It's a pain in the butt to keep them filled in.

 

[michelle89]

My new Pekin does this too, the most perfectly round hole I've ever seen! The egg is always covered up with at least 4 inches of bedding so I have to get my plastic rake out to find it! Very goofy duck!!

 

[JulieNKC]

Mine dig wells. Little beak sized ones all around the yard, and bigger ones here and there. Took me awhile to figure out why their yard was starting to look like a lunar landscape.

 

[Yetti]

all 6 of mine are diggers. my yard is a mine field of holes. and if the pool is close by they undermine it so the side colapses and makes more mud

 

[chookhead]

it porbly wantrs a safe private place to raise a clutch of eggs then brood and hatch out some cuties

 

[featherfinder]

Glad to hear i am not the only one lol. Whatever her reason is I just thought it was weird. Her new one is under the duck house in a very difficult spot to reach. Guess she is mad that i keep taking her eggs lol.

 

[Jacob Duckman]

I have a Crested-Swedish hybrid that is a digger all around. She has dug dozens of small holes all around her run, about 2" diameter, 6" deep.

She started laying a few months ago haphazardly around the run and after the 3rd egg she dug a round hole, about a foot wide and a 4-6" deep eventhough she has a very comfortable 4x4 straw-lined house. Maybe some ducks are more comfortable laying outside in the dirt? Perhaps a survival adaptation from the past?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have a Crested-Swedish hybrid that is a digger all around. She has dug dozens of small holes all around her run, about 2" diameter, 6" deep.

She started laying a few months ago haphazardly around the run and after the 3rd egg she dug a round hole, about a foot wide and a 4-6" deep eventhough she has a very comfortable 4x4 straw-lined house. Maybe some ducks are more comfortable laying outside in the dirt? Perhaps a survival adaptation from the past?

Might be something to think about, Drilling is popular here too.

@Jacob Duckman Welcome to BYC!

 

[cayugaducklady]

I keep about 10 inches of bedding in the dog house that my hens use for laying. The official nest-marker hen does dig a hole in the bedding to lay her egg. She covers it up with 10 inches of bedding every morning before she comes off the nest to eat. I have to use a rake to gently probe for it in the bedding.

They all make small drill holes in the pen,. They're mostly where the compost worms are active. But they aren't too many of them and they aren't difficult to fix. I just rake the pen bedding over them to fil lthme back up.