non-broody ducks - questions please advise

[kylee2katie]

My three girls, pekin, muskovy, and mallard (all about 11 to 12 months old) are all laying eggs - in three different places. I am getting an egg a day from each. The pekin and mallard had about 20 eggs each and last weekend, I tossed all of them....they had crushed several and it was a stinky mess!

They have two "houses" within their night pen. They free range during the day. The pekin and mallard are each laying in a hay filled house and the muskovy is laying in a house out in the yard, that I built before I bought the other two.

My questions:
can I move the muskovy eggs to one of the other houses?
how long do I give them to start setting?
Is there anything I can do to "encourage" them to set when they have a full nest?

Also, my normally sweet skovy has taken to staying in the night pen when I let the others out. she doesn't go in the houses, she just stands on the ramp to their pool. When I put the others back up at night, she flattens out or fluffs up and does this crazy thing with her neck, stretching it out and almost hissing at the others, both girls and boys.

She won't let them near the pool. This neck thing is not the normal "come hither" thing they do....

I really can't seperate them other than to lock her in the one house that has a door. and I don't like that idea but want to do what is best for them...

This is also the house that the mallard is laying in....but it does have a door...
The skovy is laying in the wooden one by the tree in the back right of this picture.

 

[Amiga]

Hmmm, this is a head-scratcher. My only recent experience is with runners, though I had a couple of mallards and pekins years ago. The mallards and pekins never did go broody. Among my ten runners, I have two who are broody - they sit together on a next for a few weeks at a time, before the hormone levels shift and they behave like the rest of the ducks for a few months.

There are a couple who get semi-broody, but who prefer to run with the flock more than sit a nest.

I just don't know that your ducks will actually sit, based on what they've been doing. Some just don't have that instinct. Some surprise us, but many of the breeds won't do what needs to be done to successfully hatch eggs.

That said, my broody runners (who are sitting on wooden eggs, by the way - we have no drakes) have been happy to sit on a shared nest in a quiet, not-too-brightly-lit area with piles of clean straw that they lovingly arrange into a beautiful nest.

They will still leave the nest for half an hour at a time, longer if I "trap" them in the duckyard. But after half an hour or so, they holler to be let back onto their nest.

During their outings with the flock, they run around, bathe, drink, eat, poop, and generally catch up on ducky stuff. Then, back to the nest they go. They seem healthy and bright-eyed and pretty happy.

 

[kylee2katie]

any other thoughts on what to do? The egg count is increasing by 3 per day but still - no one is sitting....only the skovy guarding the pool like a mad woman!! I did do away with the outside house and the skovy is now laying her eggs with the pekin eggs...

 

[mominoz]

I've read that Muscovys and Mallards both tend to go broody and set. But if you don't have a male, they aren't fertile , so nothing will hatch.

If they are fertile, moving a broody ducks nest usually doesn't work .. The females are probably "claiming" nest territory. To stop broodiness, they say you should not let the bird in a "darkened" area, basically lock them off the nests most of the day.My mini got real fussy and noisy and danced around when she went broody last year.... good luck

 

[kylee2katie]

I do have two male mallards - and those eggs should be VERY fertilized!!

We have non stop "victory laps"! As of last night, the muskovy is staying closer to the nest area while the others go wandering....hopefully that's a good sign!