Muscovies not laying?

[sky's the limit]

I'm brand new to having ducks, and am completely puzzled by this...I'm hoping someout there will be able to help...

I got a trio of muscovies about 3 weeks ago. Had 3 eggs in the first 2 days, and have nothing since...here's a bit more info...
- The guy I bought them from had gotten 21 eggs in 2 weeks from the 2 females (he only had them for 2 weeks...he had gotten the trio for someone else, who changed her mind, and then I bought them).
- I brought them home and put them in a temporary spot (we were building them a new coop, but it wasn't quite ready yet - didn't want to let them loose until they had adjusted to their new surroundings).
- On the second day after getting them, we were moving them to their new spot, and they managed to get loose. We eventually herded them into their new coop (it was getting late and we wanted to make sure they were indoors overnight). Nothing too serious, but I'm sure it stressed them out!
- To top things off, the feed store sold me a scratch instead of layer feed to give them. So, they were on schratch for a couple of days until I could get back to them feed store to buy the right stuff.

So, that's the story. The last day I got eggs was the afternoon before they got loose. Why aren't they laying? Will they start laying again? I there anything I should do? Help....

 

[keeperofthehearth]

I don't think a few days on scratch hurt them any. If you can get them some greens that would be good. I'd look around really well if it's been more than a week or so since they layed. They could have those eggs hidden pretty well. When my girls think that their nest is in dangeror is being disturbed (by me taking their eggs lol) they bury them well before leaving to forage etc. It might take you awhile to find where they are laying them. Good luck!

 

[MDC]

Any time you stress Muscovy whether it be taking them to a show, moving them to a foreign pen, or bringing them home from someone else's place it will usually result in the bird quitting egg laying for about 2 weeks, in my experience. If they're highly stressed it might take longer for them to begin to lay again. Personally from what you describe I wouldn't worry about your birds, I would just make sure that they feel as comfortable as possible as soon as possible in their new pen and give them plenty of safe, secure-feeling nest boxes or areas. That alone is worth it's weight in gold when dealing with Muscovy.

Also, as KOTH stated, they are very good at hiding nests so when they do begin to lay if they haven't already, they might hide the nest so well that they'll just disappear one day and you'll not know what happened to them until you're either lucky enough to catch them off the nest for their daily ritual of a bite to eat, bath, and a poop, or until they bring out a nest-full of fuzzy babies!

The scratch really wouldn't hurt them for the short time it was fed. I actually prefer to feed whole grains because they're in a more natural state and theoretically they'll remain fresher longer because they're usually intact (of course I do feed cracked corn but it's through a local feed mill that grinds it himself). I never feed layer because Muscovy typically do not lay a large number of eggs like chickens do and I always like to offer free choice oyster shell instead so the bird gets to choose when she gets it. Also, when you're feeding a commercial ration a lot of times you're dealing with a company that spends the least amount possible to put out a product that meets 'minimum' requirements so that they can make the most $$ possible. (Why else would we import grains & grain by-products from China?!?) I like to feed for health & vitality, not just survival. Of course, I can get grains locally because I live in the middle of bazillions of acres of corn, wheat, and milo. Some people aren't as fortunate as I am to be able to get a ration custom-made.

 

[sky's the limit]

I'm quite sure they aren't laying elsewhere. I haven't let them roam freely around the yard yet...I'm too nervous about how I'm going to get them back in!! They are in an outside, moveable pen which we move every few days. We're using a bushel box on it's side for a nestbox...should that be okay for them? It's attached to the pen, but is about 2 inches off the ground...will that cause problems? About 2/3 of the pen is covered by wire, while the other 1/3 is covered by sheet metal. We had put a shelter at the end of the run, but they never went into it!

 

[briarpatchfarms]

Well Im new at Scovies too but at least you have got an egg from them mine hasnt started laying this year yet! IDK whats going on with mine but anyways hope they pick back up so you can have some bitties running around!

 

[MDC]

I've never heard from anyone keeping their birds in a tractor that's being moved regularly but my instinct says that it will not be very conducive to setting and it might affect laying as well. I don't know, in my experience Muscovy are very much the home-body and do not accept change very well. If I were raising ducklings and a tractor was the best way to manage them I wouldn't hesitate to do so, personally I wouldn't be too optimistic about trying to run breeding adults in a tractor with any success. That's just me, though.

 

[sky's the limit]

Maybe I need to reconsider how our housing is set up. Is there a thread on here that has really good info about duck housing, or maybe a website? I would love to know what everyone is using for housing...maybe I need to start a different thread about duck coops!

 

[MDC]

I think there are a few threads around on coops, but, ducks don't really 'need' a coop like a chicken does as ducks do not sleep at night like chickens do. As long as the pen is predator proof, you can successfully keep ducks with nothing more than a dog house or something similar in the pen for them to use if/when they choose to go in. If you have really severe winter weather with a lot of snow it might be wise to have a smaller pen/shelter that you can keep clear of snow but otherwise their housing needs are really minor as they typically prefer to be out of doors anyway. If you have a few ducks and use a dog house, then for winter you can do something as simple as throw up a few bales of straw around the outside & toss some inside for bedding and they'd be set.

The only time I've really worried about running the ducks inside is when we've had very severe blizzard/ice conditions where birds were freezing to the ground.

Of course, all that said, I raise animals in a 'farm' environment & from a 'farm' prospective. I don't do anything because it's 'pretty' or adds to the decor of a backyard - I tend to choose practical/purposeful over 'pretty' as a general rule. If you have birds in a backyard and need to maintain an appearance then you'll have to take that into consideration and pretty much do what you have to do to work around that. My ducks are in duck pens during breeding season w/ access to free range outside of breeding season. They don't have to be pretty - just practical.

 

[sky's the limit]

I'm not concerned with the aesthetics of the housing - practical is the main importance, aslong as it's not falling down and gives them what they need, I'm happy. Everything we do is from a farm perspective too.

We do have severe winter weather with lots of snow and cold. I think we're going to have to set up 2 different types of housing - one for winter and the other for the rest of the year.

ɱůşçōvý - do you have any pictures of your duck pens and breeding pens? Over the next year of so, I'd like to get a couple of the duck breeds, and would like to be bale to keep them seperate during breeding season.

 

[MDC]

I have never taken any photos of my pens because they're really nothing to write home about. On the perimeter of the main duck pen are some buildings as well as some chain link fencing and along the northern side of the main duck pen, which also includes the breed pens I have wire panels similar to a cattle panel but taller & the openings are all 4"x4" or 2"x4". I think those panels are 6'. If I had my way and they still sold them locally I'd have those type of panels all around the perimeter. They're really sturdy. The majority of the breed pen dividers are 4' 2x4" welded wire & I use random gates we'd had around since we ran hogs 25-30 years ago when I was a kid. These won't really hold yearling birds in that like to fly unless you clip wings, but the older mature birds typically stay in them once they accept them as 'home'. We already had the 4' welded wire so I went with that, ideally I'd gone with 5' but I didn't figure I needed to buy that when we had the 4' on hand. I created my breed pens to break up a 'round-about' thing we had going on in the main pen because my parents had set some kennels in the middle of the pen so essentially any time you wanted to catch birds you had to chase them round and round and round and round ad nauseum. So, to take care of that I used the back portion to create my breed pens so that there is no more merry-go-round and I have a single large pen up front & 3-5 in back, depending on how many I need. I simply remove a cross-fence to make larger pens when I don't need all 5 pens.

For winter I line up the nest boxes along the north side of a fence that gets a lot of southern exposure and they have a pickup topper to get in as they see fit. We rarely get much snow but do get very severe wind chills so this is enough to keep them warm & happy. If we do have the rare blizzard roll in or like a few years ago when we had 4" of ice below a heap of snow I will run them into the barn & pen them there if necessary. My birds get a touch of frost bite on occasion but usually it was the drakes with the really excessive caruncling. The ones I have now, which are more moderately caruncled, don't usually suffer any ill effects.

I generally throw down plenty of straw, I've even been known to build a straw bale shelter with a piece of plywood on top & throw down some loose for them to use as bedding. They'll pull straw down as the winter progresses so they do a lot of the work for me, keeping a fresh pile of straw down. When spring comes I will spread it out in their pen & in front of the nest boxes for them to use as nesting material.