New to Muscovies...broody hen question

[sky's the limit]

I have a trio of muscovies that I got earlier this summer. They ewre laying when I got them, and stopped a couple of days afterwords. About 3 weeks later, they started to lay again. We just assumed that they had gotten stressed and when the felt more comfortable they started to lay again.
A few days ago (after about 2 weeks of laying getting 2 eggs/day - an egg from each of the ducks every morning) we started getting only one egg/day. We had one day with no eggs and got 1 egg today. We have been collecting the eggs every day to put into an incubator. The ducks seem to be wanting to set in the nest, and are quite vocal when we go into the pen (as vocal as muscovies get

). We left the egg in the nest that was there today.
So, my question is, will they lay any more eggs in the nest, or do they only lay a set amount per cluth, even if the eggs are collected each day? If they stop laying all together and we leave none in the nest, will they start laying again in a couple of weeks? How does this whole thing work with 'scovies?
Help...

 

[keeperofthehearth]

Why don't you want them to brood? They are the best mom's around. I've taken a few eggs away for baking purposes but let the girls incubate and brood their ducklings. Makes sense to me that they would start laying again after a few weeks like chickens do if they go broody but aren't given any chicks to brood but I may be wrong. Hope someone with more experience can answer you.

 

[sky's the limit]

It's not I don't want them to brood. I had been collecting their eggs for eating at first, and then had collected them in hopes of getting some to incubate, and would let them set on the next ones. I was thinking that they would keep laying until they had enough in their nest and we would end up with a larger volume of eggs/ducklings this way. Now I'm wondering if it won't work the way I was hoping!

 

[keeperofthehearth]

Now I'm wondering if it won't work the way I was hoping!

I suspect you may be right. Hopefully someone with more exp. w/Scovies will let us know.
I know broody chooks take some time to go back to laying even if you break them fm being broody. They go back sooner but still take a few weeks. I'm sure it has to do with hormone levels & theirr natural cycles.
I have one broody Scovy, Beth, who had her ducklings stolen at a few days old by our head hen, Charlotte. She waited only a week maybe two and started a new clutch but this clutch was somewhat smaller than her first. Arwen, who had her ducklings stolen by Charlotte also, waited longer, maybe a month, and helped Charlotte watch over all the ducklings. Once she began laying she laid a full clutch of 15+(lost count ). Charlotte layed her first egg today & her kids are 8wks old.