irregular duck egg laying?

[braxide]

i have had ducks for quite a few years now but not as long as i have had chickens. before the cureently flock we primarily had drakes and a total of two females within both flocks. they didn’t lay eggs much but they did. however now i have two drakes and five females and one day my dad checked the coop while i was away from the house and found 8 eggs. we we’re very excited! my girlfriends mom bought our chicken eggs which they stopped laying so the duck eggs was a great find! however thne they stopped for at least a week! yesterday i checked the coop thouroughly and found no eggs.. then today i doing 8 AGAIN!!! where did they come from?? they were in a nest that looked freshly made and wasn’t there yesterday… considering there’s only 5 females how could this be? and why weren’t there any before this?
in case it’s needed info it’s 4 rouens one runner one rouen and the runner are somewhat younger but idk by how much.

 

[Kingbobkingdom]

How old are the ducks?
Honestly, I'm not really sure what's happening, but I'll try to figure out as much as I can.
@Miss Lydia
@cheezenkwackers

 

[cheezenkwackers]

i have had ducks for quite a few years now but not as long as i have had chickens. before the cureently flock we primarily had drakes and a total of two females within both flocks. they didn’t lay eggs much but they did. however now i have two drakes and five females and one day my dad checked the coop while i was away from the house and found 8 eggs. we we’re very excited! my girlfriends mom bought our chicken eggs which they stopped laying so the duck eggs was a great find! however thne they stopped for at least a week! yesterday i checked the coop thouroughly and found no eggs.. then today i doing 8 AGAIN!!! where did they come from?? they were in a nest that looked freshly made and wasn’t there yesterday… considering there’s only 5 females how could this be? and why weren’t there any before this?
in case it’s needed info it’s 4 rouens one runner one rouen and the runner are somewhat younger but idk by how much.

I suspect they are burying the eggs and then digging them back up on the day you find them. Is that possible?

 

[braxide]

How old are the ducks?
Honestly, I'm not really sure what's happening, but I'll try to figure out as much as I can.
@Miss Lydia
@cheezenkwackers

honestly not sure of any of their ages except the two males and the younger rouen which should be about 8 months and i’m assuming the runner to be around there maybe 6. one of the rouens and the runner are mated with quite frequently and i caught the rouen in question on the nest a bit ago. if i had to guess i’d guess no older than a year.

 

[braxide]

I suspect they are burying the eggs and then digging them back up on the day you find them. Is that possible?

maybe but i feel like i would have stepped on them then. they are just kinda showing up just in the middle of the coop both times.

 

[AshleyHanson]

What if you separate them? Then see whose laying and who isn't? This could help at least identify whose laying what.

 

[braxide]

What if you separate them? Then see whose laying and who isn't? This could help at least identify whose laying what.

definately thought of it. when i was last away a couple days and left my dad to care for them he tried keeping them in the coop during the day and feeding them in there to see if any eggs would show up but there was none. i have my suspicion of who the layer (s) could be but i will likely try to seperate the suspect at some point to see what happens. i’m just very shocked to have found 8 today when there was no sign of any yesterday. i even looked around our lake and in the weeds cage we had a female once that layed in the yard.

 

[braxide]

i have had ducks for quite a few years now but not as long as i have had chickens. before the cureently flock we primarily had drakes and a total of two females within both flocks. they didn’t lay eggs much but they did. however now i have two drakes and five females and one day my dad checked the coop while i was away from the house and found 8 eggs. we we’re very excited! my girlfriends mom bought our chicken eggs which they stopped laying so the duck eggs was a great find! however thne they stopped for at least a week! yesterday i checked the coop thouroughly and found no eggs.. then today i doing 8 AGAIN!!! where did they come from?? they were in a nest that looked freshly made and wasn’t there yesterday… considering there’s only 5 females how could this be? and why weren’t there any before this?
in case it’s needed info it’s 4 rouens one runner one rouen and the runner are somewhat younger but idk by how much.

i have also done something to try to lure them to continue laying.. i had an egg sitting on the counter for a while that nobody seems to want to eat or do anything with so i put an x on it and put it in the now empty nest. maybe seeing another egg will help them lay more frequently?

this is the suspect
(maybe the runner too but the eggs are all same size and same color so i’m not sure.) this rouen has been mated with a lot (missing feathers all over neck) and her butt looks.. rather large and kinda hangs down more than the other girls.

 

[braxide]

I suspect they are burying the eggs and then digging them back up on the day you find them. Is that possible?

this ended up seeming to be the case! i don’t know how we didn’t step on them when looking then! i went to check on the nest and it was “gone” so i dug around and found a new egg! thanks for the suggestion