Is this weird?

[Kaitie09]

I have two Mallards (drake and hen) that live in the chicken coop. They have been in there since they were 6 weeks old and they are now 4months old. We built them a nest in the corner of the coop and they slept there every night. Recently, they have learned they can fly and get themselves more than 5 inches off the ground. The past week, I go in to lock the coop up, and the ducks are sleeping in the chicken's nesting box. The boxes are about 2ft off the ground and the ducks get in the middle box together. I don't know if this is normal, or if something is getting in there and freaking them out on the floor. I really believe they think they are chickens, they act more like them than they do real ducks. They also have a strange attachment to our rooster, and the nesting box they sleep in is directly below where he sleeps.

 

[Amiga]

I don't have chickens, just runner ducks. They sometimes do things that run counter to what I have read that I should expect with them, so it's possible they're just fitting into the multi species flock as well as they can. Something scaring them up into a safer place is also a possibility. Is there some way you can try to figure out what might be happening? Some people get little web cams, or look for footprints.

 

[Denninmi]

I don't think there is anything particularly odd about it. They probably enjoy the little extra sense of security. Previously, they were unable to get up there, now they can.

Around here where I live, we have a couple hundred lakes in the county. I see mallards sleeping on top of boats, often on the bow or other elevated parts, and on other elevated places. The funniest sight is one dock on a lake a couple of miles from my house that has great big heavy posts about 6" in diameter, with round decorative finials on tops about the same diameter. Ducks sleep on top of those all the time, hanging out both ends because they are much larger than the finials. And, of course, the riparian residents don't like those "messy" ducks on their boats and docks, so they put a lot of those dumb plastic owls out to scare the ducks -- I've seen ducks perched on top of those many times, too.