slippednfell
Songster
I have four ducks. A Cayuga drake, a Peking hen and two Mallard hens. They are about a year old and have been raised together. We have a pond that is a acre and a half. Their enclosure is 10 x 20 and 6' tall. It sits so that it is 1/2 in the water and 1/2 on the bank. Their duck house is on the bank with a ramp that goes into the water. They actually have created little openings so they can get in and out of their enclosure at will. (They tunneled out! lol) Up until a few weeks ago, they have been laying their eggs in the duck house. Sometimes they are buried under the straw a bit. (There are three ceramic eggs in the duck house.)
(Several weeks ago, we noticed them eating their eggs but we changed their food to layer feed and offered oyster shells, on advice of some of your fine folks, and that ended that. They were back to laying in the house.)
So... in the past few weeks, when the house is checked for eggs every day, there aren't any in there. I still see them mating. One day, we found a duck egg at the bottom of our deck steps and I know they don't wander to that side of the house as we have a dog that runs loose and that would put them way too far from safety. Last night, we were on the deck and saw our dog that wanders sniffing around one of the clumps of vegetation and then she picked something up and ran with it. My hubby went through the house and out the front door and got it from her and as I suspected, it was a duck egg. Now it had a small crack in the shell.
Other than blocking off their escape routes and depriving them of most of their large pond and foraging along the banks, how do we get them to lay their eggs in the house again?
You can see one escape route in the photo. It is left of the concrete block, just left of center in the photo.
(Several weeks ago, we noticed them eating their eggs but we changed their food to layer feed and offered oyster shells, on advice of some of your fine folks, and that ended that. They were back to laying in the house.)
So... in the past few weeks, when the house is checked for eggs every day, there aren't any in there. I still see them mating. One day, we found a duck egg at the bottom of our deck steps and I know they don't wander to that side of the house as we have a dog that runs loose and that would put them way too far from safety. Last night, we were on the deck and saw our dog that wanders sniffing around one of the clumps of vegetation and then she picked something up and ran with it. My hubby went through the house and out the front door and got it from her and as I suspected, it was a duck egg. Now it had a small crack in the shell.
Other than blocking off their escape routes and depriving them of most of their large pond and foraging along the banks, how do we get them to lay their eggs in the house again?
You can see one escape route in the photo. It is left of the concrete block, just left of center in the photo.
