Muscovy duck egg question

[Duckmom78]

So I have a constant Muskovy duck laying eggs in my yard… They always all hatch and unfortunately due to where I live they always end up getting eaten by predators.

My girlfriend has a single Muskovy duck that laid eggs back in April however none of them hatched and she keeps laying on the nest 24 seven all the time. We decided to move two of my ducks eggs to her and my friend said she’s doing the same thing that she did before. She’s been laying on these last two eggs for about 30 days now and now has messed up her nest and kicked out the eggs like she did with her first batch back in April.

We candled the eggs and they were fertile but no movement now.

She keeps going back and laying on an empty nest.

Thoughts?

 

[BelovedBirds]

So I have a constant Muskovy duck laying eggs in my yard… They always all hatch and unfortunately due to where I live they always end up getting eaten by predators.

My girlfriend has a single Muskovy duck that laid eggs back in April however none of them hatched and she keeps laying on the nest 24 seven all the time. We decided to move two of my ducks eggs to her and my friend said she’s doing the same thing that she did before. She’s been laying on these last two eggs for about 30 days now and now has messed up her nest and kicked out the eggs like she did with her first batch back in April.

We candled the eggs and they were fertile but no movement now.

She keeps going back and laying on an empty nest.

Thoughts?

@Miss Lydia

I'm sorry you're having a rough time with this! Muscovies are so broody, Ive heard of them sitting on air before.
With yours, do you not provide a safe/predator proof housing for your muscovy and her babies? Also just a thought, is it possible the two eggs stopped developing before she pushed them from the nest? I haven't dealt with broodies before, so I dont know the best course of action here- miss lydia might be able to offer some thoughts/advice though.

 

[Duckmom78]

@Miss Lydia

I'm sorry you're having a rough time with this! Muscovies are so broody, Ive heard of them sitting on air before.
With yours, do you not provide a safe/predator proof housing for your muscovy and her babies? Also just a thought, is it possible the two eggs stopped developing before she pushed them from the nest? I haven't dealt with broodies before, so I dont know the best course of action here- miss lydia might be able to offer some thoughts/advice though.

No we live in an HOA and they are pretty wild but people friendly. They come and go as they please. We can’t keep them as pets.

 

[Duckmom78]

@Miss Lydia

I'm sorry you're having a rough time with this! Muscovies are so broody, Ive heard of them sitting on air before.
With yours, do you not provide a safe/predator proof housing for your muscovy and her babies? Also just a thought, is it possible the two eggs stopped developing before she pushed them from the nest? I haven't dealt with broodies before, so I dont know the best course of action here- miss lydia might be able to offer some thoughts/advice though.

Also she’s been sitting on both for almost 30 days and just kicked out the one today… it’s just so odd

 

[Miss Lydia]

Did you candle the one she kicked out? I have Muscovy and have one that just gave up being broody sat for almost 2 months on nothing I took their eggs as soon as they lay them. The other one is still sitting on nothing. You could try to destroy her nest and put something over it so she can't get back on it that may work.

 

[Duckmom78]

Did you candle the one she kicked out? I have Muscovy and have one that just gave up being broody sat for almost 2 months on nothing I took their eggs as soon as they lay them. The other one is still sitting on nothing. You could try to destroy her nest and put something over it so she can't get back on it that may work.

My friend tried that last time. She messed up her nest but she kept coming back and fixing it. We thought she would make a great foster mom with the two eggs we gave her. She was so happy!! My friend doesn’t want to shut her out from coming in her yard. She’s grown attached to her. Any thoughts on what we can do? Maybe more eggs to foster? Or a baby duck?

 

[Miss Lydia]

What I meant about putting something over where she is nesting just to discourage her from sitting continually. A couple of years ago I gave Runner eggs to a muscovy and a chicken only 2 hatched so one for each I decided to give the Runner duckling hatched by my chicken to the Muscovy mom so both ducklings would be together My Muscovy took that duckling because she had just hatched and when they just hatch they are more receptive to taking ducklings.