Ducks will be laying soon

anewman0623

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I have two very beautiful Welsh Harlequin ducks, and they are 18 weeks old, so they may start laying soon. The problem is that they hate the upstairs section of their coup, with its specially designed laying boxes and layers of hay. I would be worried about their eggs if they lay them way in the back of their coup where they like to sleep, and I would rather not lift up the coup every morning to collect their eggs. I have tried putting them upstairs at night, but they rarely stay there for more than half an hour even late at night. Does anyone know any tips for getting them to stay up there? Thank you.
 
I also have Welsh harlequins. They are a beautiful breed. Mine are 26 weeks old. Two of them started laying almost a month ago, but two have not started yet. I'm hoping they will start before the winter sets in, but I may be waiting until late winter or spring to see more eggs. The two that lay now lay two eggs every single day, together in one "nest" in the straw inside their house. The nest moves to a different corner of their house every few days.

Ducks typically prefer to be close to the ground and are known for not being particularly interested in nesting boxes. My duck house is elevated four inches above my duck pen and has a shallow ramp from house to pen. My ducks willingly go inside most evenings and I close their door, which is a drawbridge style and becomes their ramp when down. We have too many potential predators to leave them in the pen at night. The pen is pretty secure, but the house is even more so and is insulated against the winter cold.

How much higher than the ground level is the upstairs part of your coop? How steep is the ramp? Ducks have different needs and preferences from chickens, since they don't perch and their feet can't grasp onto things the way a chicken's feet can. Mine clearly feel safer in their house at night, since they are often in there waiting for me to close their door when I go out to secure them for the night, but others here have mentioned that their ducks like to sleep outside in the run instead of the duck house. My ducks lay sometime overnight, as the eggs are always in the duck house. Sometimes, the ducks bury their eggs in the straw and I have to look for them.

Maybe someone else here will have some ideas for you. You might want to post some pictures of your coop so that people can see your set up and possibly offer better advice.
 
Thank you very much! Their upstairs section is elevated a little more, maybe a foot and a half or so and the ramp is not that shallow. This could be the problem, but I could try putting a door to the upstairs part so I can keep them up there. In that case, I would have to have a little bit of food and water upstairs as they usually wake up before I do and are generally unhappy morning ducks.
 
Can you extend the length of their ramp to make the incline shallower? They might also need some side walls on the ramp, since their waddles don't make for as much stability on a ramp as chickens have. If the ramp might be slippery for wet webbed feet, consider putting something on the ramp to make it feel less treacherous to them. My ramp is so short and shallow that I haven't had to do that.

I don't put food or water inside my duck house to help keep my ducks and my bedding drier during the night. They are anxious to come out in the morning, pouring out of their door like a mini flash flood, heading straight for food and water. I always have a bucket full of water in their pen so they have a place to get clean water while I fill up their kiddie pool for the day.
 

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