Muscovy hen behavior!! Beats all I've ever seen!!

[Muscovy-palooza]

Crazy Broody Muscovy hens!!

I have experienced great frustration with trying to keep my Muscovy ducks safe. We have dealt with snapping turtles, blocked dangerous or inaccessible areas, or so we thought, that they could lay to no avail.
I CANNOT get over how very broody they are.
Our numbers were dwindling and we simply could not figure out why until we saw a hen perched on top of the chimney looking down inside as though it were an access to some place special. We went on about our business and an hour or so later we went to see if we heard anything in the chimney, which was piped to our non working furnace. In other words a complete dead end. We heard something so my husband grabbed the ladder to take a look. Sure enough!! That hen had taken a dive down our chimney. We had to dismantle the pipe and break the clay fitting and when we did the head of a dead duck flopped out. My husband pulled that one and two other dead hens out of that chimney before being able to rescue the one that had just jumped. It turns out that the sound that we heard was actually not coming from the chimney but coming from under the house which we thought we had sewn up tight to keep the girls from laying under there. We think that the hens in the chimney may have somehow thought that was an access to under the house. I really have no idea for sure but this has really gotten out of control.
I just rescued 3 ducklings due to a hen making her nest in a spot that was impossible for ducklings to safely flee from the nest. I found them, sandwiched between and under things, cold and scared. I have gathered 6 ducklings so far and am just going to brood them in the house.
I love for them to free range but honest to goodness I just don't know how to control their desire to nest in unsafe places.
Any suggestions? Btw, we do have a sizeable coop that is accessible to them from sun up til sun down complete with nesting boxes both built in as well as homemade tote boxes on the floor with nesting material.

 

[DuckyDonna]

Crazy Broody Muscovy hens!!View attachment 2142022View attachment 2142027View attachment 2142029
I have experienced great frustration with trying to keep my Muscovy ducks safe. We have dealt with snapping turtles, blocked dangerous or inaccessible areas, or so we thought, that they could lay to no avail.
I CANNOT get over how very broody they are.
Our numbers were dwindling and we simply could not figure out why until we saw a hen perched on top of the chimney looking down inside as though it were an access to some place special. We went on about our business and an hour or so later we went to see if we heard anything in the chimney, which was piped to our non working furnace. In other words a complete dead end. We heard something so my husband grabbed the ladder to take a look. Sure enough!! That hen had taken a dive down our chimney. We had to dismantle the pipe and break the clay fitting and when we did the head of a dead duck flopped out. My husband pulled that one and two other dead hens out of that chimney before being able to rescue the one that had just jumped. It turns out that the sound that we heard was actually not coming from the chimney but coming from under the house which we thought we had sewn up tight to keep the girls from laying under there. We think that the hens in the chimney may have somehow thought that was an access to under the house. I really have no idea for sure but this has really gotten out of control.
I just rescued 3 ducklings due to a hen making her nest in a spot that was impossible for ducklings to safely flee from the nest. I found them, sandwiched between and under things, cold and scared. I have gathered 6 ducklings so far and am just going to brood them in the house.
I love for them to free range but honest to goodness I just don't know how to control their desire to nest in unsafe places.
Any suggestions? Btw, we do have a sizeable coop that is accessible to them from sun up til sun down complete with nesting boxes both built in as well as homemade tote boxes on the floor with nesting material.

@Miss Lydia your'e the expert on this!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I had the same problem when I first started with Muscovy they would fly over the fence and get under my dh work shop or somehow get under the ramp going into their coop. The only way I could stop this was to clip a wing on them and put up hardware cloth around all areas where they could climb under. They still go broody but they lay an brood in their house now. I am so sorry to hear your girls were going down into a chimney and dying thank goodness you saw the one and was able to save her. Mine do like to brood in private so I give them places in their coop where they can have privacy. And they get to have a week with just their duckling with out having to deal with anyone else. I have one now who will be hatching in of next week. She’s in the coop but seaparated by a lattice wall so she doesn’t have to deal with any other bird while she’s broody. She has a gate so she can come an go as she wants once the ducklings hatch she’ll have the coop all to herself once everyone goes out for the day.

 

[Muscovy-palooza]

I had the same problem when I first started with Muscovy they would fly over the fence and get under my dh work shop or somehow get under the ramp going into their coop. The only way I could stop this was to clip a wing on them and put up hardware cloth around all areas where they could climb under. They still go broody but they lay an brood in their house now. I am so sorry to hear your girls were going down into a chimney and dying thank goodness you saw the one and was able to save her. Mine do like to brood in private so I give them places in their coop where they can have privacy. And they get to have a week with just their duckling with out having to deal with anyone else. I have one now who will be hatching in of next week. She’s in the coop but seaparated by a lattice wall so she doesn’t have to deal with any other bird while she’s broody. She has a gate so she can come an go as she wants once the ducklings hatch she’ll have the coop all to herself once everyone goes out for the day.

I have two hens on nests in the coop. One nested on the concrete floor, with deep bedding,. Her eggs keep moving out from under her. Bless her heart, she started in the corner but every day I have to reposition her and get the eggs under her. I really doubt that any of the eggs will still hatch. The other hen is in a nesting box There are nesting boxes that are nice and private. There is no rhyme or reason to there nesting practices. The ones that we discovered under the house have not emerged. I have only seen one back and forth so I am concerned that a predator may have gotten them.