Problems with my muscovy duck hens....

[HecklesSkeckles]

Hello everybody!

So I am just getting into raising muscovys. I got my first pair last fall and got three more hens about two months ago. I have lots of chickens but have no experience with ducks. One of my hens is sitting on a clutch of 17 eggs and I candled them and she is doing fabulous!

One of my other hens had 20 eggs in her clutch. She had laid them in the nesting box that my chickens also use. I thought she was gettin ready to sit, she would be in there on and off for a few days, then on mothers days she was in there the entire day. Then, much to my disappointment, she got off the nest! and has not returned to sitting on it. Today I look in there and there are only six of her eggs in there! There are all sorts of chicken eggs in the other boxes but her eggs have vanished!

What do you think is going on here? My first thought was maybe she changed her mind and didn't like that spot because I have to open the top every night to collect eggs and maybe she didn't like that? Is it possible that she rolled the eggs out of the nest and moved them? I looked and couldn't find them anywhere!

My other two hens have not started to make a nest as far as I can tell. They free range but I have looked for other nests and haven't found any and they are still hanging out by the pond all day.

I have been looking forward to ducklings for sooooo long it seems and only one of them has made a good effort to produce any so far. I have been joking with DH that my ducks must be broken, so I might have to take them back for an exchange lol.

But seriously I thought muscovys are the mother of all broodys and only laid eggs so they could hatch them, so why didn't my hen sit on those eggs, and why haven't my other two even tried too? Sorry this was such a long post but any sort of advice would be much appreciated. Because even tho I love those girls they are starting to frustrate me! I want babies! lol

Thanks in advance!

 

[Going Quackers]

Welcome!

well first of all in my experience NOT all scovies sit, sometimes they will but later on or some just don't.. i had one who didn't for 2yrs then went once last year and is trying it again this year.

so my point is this varies. I would give it time, some need time to mature others don't like the weather lol How old are the birds in question?

As for nest loss... ducks will remove non fertile, and not developing properly eggs... as well predators are a possibility too depending on the set-up.

I had a duck toss her entire nest recently too... and she's an experienced setter and mama, i trust her judgement. Give it some time, Muscovy are good broodies and do mother well, generally speaking. I have had small nests here and big, again varies.. i have a had a mum set in Feb! and hatch in March(and here that is winter, well below freezing)

I currently have several on nests right now varying from a few eggs right up into lost count, i even have one on some chicken eggs lol

Do update! love to hear how it all works out.

 

[HecklesSkeckles]

Thank you so much for the reply!

I did not know that sometimes it takes a muscovy awhile to deciede to go broody... so that does make me feel a little better. DH has been telling me that I need to stop worrying about it, that they know what they are doing more than me lol

I actually don't have a clue on how old any of them are... I think the origional hen that I got is a little older. She kept trying to make a clutch last fall but I kept taking the eggs cuz I didn't want ducklings in october. and I have a feeling that my new hens are fairly young, they are smaller than my old hen. It is one of the new hens that didn't set on the nest.

And holy cow! your muscovy hatched out eggs in march? I would have thought that the freezing temperatures would have affected the viability of the eggs, or do you collect the eggs until they go broody? I was wondering that when my hen was laying in april and we were still getting freezing temperatures, but apparently it didn't bother the eggs because they are developing!

Hopefully when they see the ducklings running around, if and when they hatch, it will make them want to be mothers too lol. At least that seems to be how it works with my chickens, when one of them hatch babies, then they all want babies, it's like dominos.

Thanks for the informative reply! I will let you know how the hatch goes in about three weeks! and if anybody else gets their butt in gear...

 

[subhanalah]

I would be on the look out for either egg eating or something else stealing/eating the eggs in that nest. Eggs don't just disappear.

 

[Going Quackers]

Thank you so much for the reply!

I did not know that sometimes it takes a muscovy awhile to deciede to go broody... so that does make me feel a little better. DH has been telling me that I need to stop worrying about it, that they know what they are doing more than me lol

I actually don't have a clue on how old any of them are... I think the origional hen that I got is a little older. She kept trying to make a clutch last fall but I kept taking the eggs cuz I didn't want ducklings in october. and I have a feeling that my new hens are fairly young, they are smaller than my old hen. It is one of the new hens that didn't set on the nest.

And holy cow! your muscovy hatched out eggs in march? I would have thought that the freezing temperatures would have affected the viability of the eggs, or do you collect the eggs until they go broody? I was wondering that when my hen was laying in april and we were still getting freezing temperatures, but apparently it didn't bother the eggs because they are developing!

Hopefully when they see the ducklings running around, if and when they hatch, it will make them want to be mothers too lol. At least that seems to be how it works with my chickens, when one of them hatch babies, then they all want babies, it's like dominos.

Thanks for the informative reply! I will let you know how the hatch goes in about three weeks! and if anybody else gets their butt in gear...

Usually (not this past winter tho) my ducks resume laying in Feb, she went broody clear off the bat and i let her go at it... thinking myself.. nah, nothing will come of it! she laid 5 eggs only 1 didn't work, all babies survived, i did have to supplement heat though not for the babies but her.. otherwise it was okay, won't allow it again.. made for getting the young outside hard, we were cold/ice/snow etc.

Muscovies are definitely broody birds on the whole, but they are not machines so they have quirks lol i have found usually the nesting is contagious.. and they will put nests in the darnest places but some are not so inclined to do so. YOung birds are tricky with it, i also nibble my fingers with new mamas you don't know how they'll be could go broody to the end or abandon, or kill the babies or abandon them too.

I have found over the years, some are just born to mothers others not so much, frankly, i like the break with the non broody crazies sometimes. It can be too much and way overload you. Good luck!