Muscovy Hen Driving Me Crazy!-anybody else's ducks made them feel dumb

[cukooformarans]

She started laying about 2 weeks ago and she keeps laying in different nests!!! She is alternating between 3 different ones. After a couple days, I moved the original eggs but she doesn't seem to lay in the same nest EVER. How can she ever hatch babies if she can't even remember where she laid her eggs!!! AGGGHHHH!!! I have consolidated them all to one nest (the one she was laying in at the time) so now she has moved to a new nest.... I don't want to disturb her, but I also don't want 11 eggs to waste just because she is not consistent ... Should I just wait until she starts setting and then try to move them .... but then again, she still will probably refuse to lay in the same nest between now and then .....

I have no ideas here! Anybody else have this experience before????????

 

[duckyfromoz]

How old is she?? A first time layer is less likely to choose a singel nesting site when they start laying. At this time of year she is less likely to go broody anyway ( but they can always surprise you!! ) so laying in a heap of different nests may not really be an issue.

 

[cukooformarans]

Lol... well she is not a first time layer-I bought her grown, but she is at least 1.5 years. She normally is VERY insistent on laying in her nest. In fact, in the spring she got mad because I had to block the nest she was laying in. She pitched a HUGE fit and quit laying altogether in the middle of spring!

She has just started back and I must admit that I was shocked this late in the year.

Here is the update (and why I feel so dumb). She is now sitting on her nest at night and filling it with feathers in preparation for setting. She has been laying for 13 days and I'm counting 16 eggs, possibly one or two more ... conclusion-I have 2 ducks laying, not one ... explains why she keeps changing nests on me.

(Although she is now definitely sticking to her nest, I am still getting an egg a day in another nest ...) Still it is late in the year for 2 muscovy to start nests ... that's my excuse for not catching on and adding all of those extra eggs to her nest