Two of my muscovy ducks starting laying late last month. I had a nest for each of them -- 2 old tires placed on opposite walls of the coop. The first duck went broody and started sitting with 12 eggs, which is good. However, I'm not so sure the second one will sit this year. When the 1st duck went broody, she began chasing the 2nd one out of the coop and it began just standing around in the fenced area 24/7. Since she wasn't rotating her eggs (they were unturned for 1 day before I noticed this situation), I moved them into a nest box and placed it outside in the fenced area. Despite being away from the 1st duck, the 2nd one is still ignoring the eggs (and not laying more). After that, I placed her into a fairly large cage (about 4 ft long) and put all her eggs into a tiny doghouse and placed it with her. She quit laying after 9 eggs, so she should be getting ready to brood. If this doesn't work, any other ideas?
Our Muscovies are setting right now too. My experience with them are they will set no matter who is around if they are in the mood to do so. We have a seperate house for our chickens with nest boxes on the wall. One of our Muscovy hens took up residence in one of them and is hatching her first clutch of eggs right now. I saw that they were peeping and had little holes in the eggs this morning. Then we have another duck who made herself a nest in the duck house out of the straw and her feathers and is setting on eggs. At night the drake and the other two hens come in to spend the night and she isn't bothered by them or try to chase them off. And as of two days ago a third Muscovy hen has taken up residence in the nursery of our laying hen replacements and has made herself a nest. One thing I wouldn't do is move her nest or eggs once they start to lay. Just leave them alone and let them take care of business. They will take a little break and then begin to lay again and will make another nest this year. Just leave them alone and let nature take its course. We also had a Buff Orpington hatch out 6 ducklings for us yesterday. : ) Deborah
Stressing her by moving her or her nest could put her off laying for up to two weeks +/-. She also won't recognize a moved nest as hers, she'll still want to lay in the original nest in most cases. Turning the eggs isn't really necessary before incubation.
