Girls and boys are freaking out being seperated!

If I have to remind mine where they are supposed to lay, I keep them all together inside the coop for a week to 10 days. There are extra large covered cat litter pans & a 2' high x 6' long box with 3 sides & a roof, no front or bottom. All are stuffed with straw which they will move around to suit them. 3 Scovie hens can fit (?) themselves in one litter pan. My Scovies & other ducks do mostly lay where they should & also in a corner where they piled up straw to make their own nest. After jail time is up, I don't open the door to let them out until after about 10 am. They still lay an occasional egg around the yard or in the pool & usually put themselves to bed about an hour after the chickens.
 
And the duck house is 14x16 with roosting bars up high and some elevated nesting area and several nesting areas on floor.

I would think that 14x16 is big enough. I have 3 drakes and 6 hens in a 10x12 coop and they are sharing their coop with 4 guineas (they are also free-ranged most of the time accept during winter). It sounds like maybe these are some overly aggressive drakes. My drakes fight during breeding season but usually it's only 2-3 fights and then they quit fighting for good unless a new duck is introduced to the paddle (a group of ducks). The drake at the bottom of the pecking order quickly learns to stop messing around and then usually there is no problems. Also when my drakes are fighting then hens usually stay away.

I pray you can get this figured out soon so you can have a nice paddle of Muscovies and you don't have to worry about quite so many things going wrong! All Muscovies are full of adventures it seems, but you know what - at least they are cute, that makes up for everything! :ya Sometimes it makes us go crazy because we just want them to do things a certain way and not take us on wild adventures. :gig:gig:gig
 
I am giving them a while in the coop in hope's that they will like the nesting boxes. They actually have laid eggs 1 in a nesting boxes and two in a baby swimming pool with bedding. Both areas are pretty secluded which is apparently what they want. I have been leaving any eggs so that they may be encouraged to lay more. Do you think that I should take the eggs? They are sitting on the two eggs in the pool. I think actually that two are sharing in the laying and sitting in that spot.

If you want to eat the eggs, you should take them.
 
Update:
I let the hens out of the coop yesterday. They were in there for 12 days. Only the 1 super broody one didnt come right out. The 2 others came out and did not go back in for the night and my hen with 2 ducklings however, headed right back in at dusk and kennels herself in the dog crate that I have been keeping she and her 2 babies in, separated from the general population.
I am so happy to report this morning that the other two hens were waiting to go back in the coop to either lay or go check their other eggs. This makes me so happy :celebrate

Two of the girls are currently in the kiddie pool together, one of which is the super broody hen who is just planted there and I am not sure how much time that she is spending on the nest. I do think that she was out for a bit yesterday. The hen with 2 babies didnt go out right away but rather went to a hidey hole area. I thought that she may be going to lay an egg but I checked later and found nothing. Do they continue to lay even if the have babies?

In an effort to keep things going smoothly I want to be sure that I don't do anything to upset the flow. Should I still continue to take an egg per day from each nest as they are laid, leaving at least 2 in each nest? What are the chances that the broody girl will just give up and quit laying as a result of me taking her eggs from under her? Is it common for them to continue sitting even if eggs are being taken? The kiddie pool is slippery so her eggs roll out from under her. I could add more hay but then she would literally be incubating the eggs. That is a popular spot.

I do need a camera of some sort don't I?
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom