I've heard that muscovies are insanely broody, but mine aren't. How can I encourage them?
The nutshell story is that these girls are about 8 months old. They're the only 2 muscovies in a flock of Magpie ducks. The reason I bought the muscovies was to be surrogate mothers for Magpie eggs. (Yes, they're definitely females - they make trilling and purring sounds, and are smaller than the muscovy drakes I owned a few years ago.) They have been flirting with the Magpie drakes, who are sex maniacs but really don't know what to think of the muscovy girls and refuse to mate with them.
I have tried letting the muscovy girls run free in the yard to find their own nesting sites. I've also given them a small dog carrier box full of hay, in the coop. What happened is that all the other ducks want to lay their eggs in it, but I was able to ascertain that the muscovies aren't laying in it when I kept the Magpies out of that section of the coop.
Anyway. How can I encourage the muscovies to start nesting? Thanks!
The nutshell story is that these girls are about 8 months old. They're the only 2 muscovies in a flock of Magpie ducks. The reason I bought the muscovies was to be surrogate mothers for Magpie eggs. (Yes, they're definitely females - they make trilling and purring sounds, and are smaller than the muscovy drakes I owned a few years ago.) They have been flirting with the Magpie drakes, who are sex maniacs but really don't know what to think of the muscovy girls and refuse to mate with them.
I have tried letting the muscovy girls run free in the yard to find their own nesting sites. I've also given them a small dog carrier box full of hay, in the coop. What happened is that all the other ducks want to lay their eggs in it, but I was able to ascertain that the muscovies aren't laying in it when I kept the Magpies out of that section of the coop.
Anyway. How can I encourage the muscovies to start nesting? Thanks!
