How sensitive are Muscovy ducks when they're nesting?

[Nohea Moa]

Are Muscovy ducks likely to abandon a clutch of eggs?
I just noticed that Lucy, my female Muscovy, has laid a clutch of 6 eggs under some tall grass.
It's her first time laying, and I'm not sure how careful I should be around her pen.
Would now be a bad time to move woodchips into the other side of the pen?
Should I tiptoe around them for a month or so, or shall I carry on as normal changing their kiddie pool water every few days?
*Can I take a few eggs without causing her to abandon the nest?*

I'm hoping to get answers from lots of folks with Muscovy specific experience.
Thank you BYC community!

 

[PetesMom]

I don't change my routine when my girls are nesting...but I also don't fiddle with them or their nest. Our one girl last month went broody for the first time and she abandoned her eggs for some reason about 4 days before they were due to hatch. A month later....she is broody again with 12 fertile eggs.

Is she sitting on her nest? If the nest is outside, I would kind of suggest moving her eggs into the shed, or wherever you keep the ducks at night (I am just assuming you lock them in at night?) and try to encourage her to lay inside.

 

[Nohea Moa]

I've offered Lucy and Ricky all kinds of shelter, but all they seem to want is some shade. Now they're in a pen without a shelter. It does rain a lot here, but there are no nocturnal predators so it hadn't occurred to me that it might be an issue.

 

[PetesMom]

I didn't even see you were in Hawaii! LOL Just keep an eye on the eggs. Once they go broody they are usually pretty stuck to their nest no matter what

 

[jamband]

In my experienece with muscovy it somewhat depends on the hen....One of mine sits and stays sitting from the first day she decides to even if she is laying more eggs in there still.....The rest of them will lay a small clutch, start sitting at night while still laying.....then the sitting gets progressively more where I will see them out only 3 hours a day then 2 but even up until a week or so before hatch they will come out for up to an hour a day and 3 of them have hatched over 30 ducklings in the past 2 weeks.

I dont change routine.....as long as you dont think the eggs are too old you can take some or all of them.....They are very determined girls and may look for a new nest spot if you take them all but simultaneously I feel like leaving a few to show the girls where to lay encourages sitting (could just be my opinion on that issue) so its balancing act to not end up with literally 100's of babies a year from a few hens.

 

[jamband]

oh and no predators at all in hawaii??

 

[Valntyn]

I'm still a duck-newbie, but to share from our experience so far, our nesting Muscovies weren't sensitive at all.

We had two girls laying on nests at the same time recently: BabyDuck and Echo. BabyDuck was friendly to me prior to nesting (and a bit of a brat once broody), but she stayed with her nest the entire time. Echo was newly adopted, not used to people really. She also stayed with her nest, right up until 5 days before Hatch Day. She was chased off her nest, and try as she did to get back to it, BabyDuck felt it was too close to her own ducklings and wouldn't let Echo back.

But the cool part of Echo's nesting was that while she was on her nest, I would be able to reach in and stroke her feathers. I also took eggs out from under her for a while (a third hen was laying eggs in Echo's nest).

So, for a bird who would run from humans, letting one pet her daily and lift her up to take eggs from beneath -- that, to me, doesn't seem very sensitive. That seems pretty steadfast.

 

[Nohea Moa]

Thanks so much for all the great advice. I really appreciate having you all share your wisdom with me. I feel much more confidant about the whole thing now.
Yesterday Lucy seemed to be going about her normal ducky business all day, but as the sun set, she disappeared to sit on her nest. Ricky was standing guard from a distance - he looked rather conspicuous standing there alone. I think he was trying to distract me from looking for Lucy. Maybe I'm reading too much into that... Muscovys are so funny!
This morning Lucy's waddling around with Ricky like nothing is happening, but I peeked in and saw that she had indeed laid a new egg in the nest

As far as predators go, we only have dogs, cats, mongoose, and owls. Not too bad really. I keep my flock in pens which seems to be enough to protect them from mammals. My chickens sleep in a coop for safety, but I don't even have to shut them in at night. Nothing bothers them. Cats and owls are the only nocturnal predators. The mongooses could cause problems for eggs, chicks, or ducklings, but our brooder is safely indoors and I'm almost always with my flock or nearby. We were having an issue with mongooses eating eggs that our free-range flock left laying around, but since then we've been setting out a trap whenever we see one. I haven't seen any near the duck pen, thank goodness.

If a mongoose came around the duck pen looking for eggs, do you think my Muscovy's would defend their turf or let the mongoose eat its fill?