Runner Duck Nests

[Doug the Chicken Man]

Now that our runner ducks are getting to that point to start laying is there a way to get them to lay in one nest. As training with chickens when I build the nest box and put a few golf balls in it will they learn to lay thie eggs there?

How do others do the nest thing?

Can you show me.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Most ducks don't care where they lay their eggs - they're not so fastidious about it, like chickens are - Runners especially, since they rarely go broody.

My ducks will drop their eggs wherever - they're all over the place in the straw in the morning. Sometimes they'll have a favorite spot where most of the eggs are laid one week, but it's always shifting around. I have a Pekin who routinely lays her egg during the day in her pond.

My point is, it's going to be very hard to train them to lay in one place. I tried the golf ball thing, I tried building them nest boxes - which they would sometimes use for a week or two, before laying them someplace else again. Now, I've given up and I go hunting for the eggs every morning (and check the pond in the evening).

 

[Doug the Chicken Man]

I was wondering if it was like that.
We will wee if we can get them all as there is part of the duck run that humans can't get to on the one shore of the creek we fenced off for them. Might be interesting to get eggs form there.

 

[Duck_feeder]

Our runners can be coaxed into laying in a certain spot with fake eggs, but once they realize they aren't real eggs it stops getting them to lay there. Once our runners choose a spot to lay, they almost always lay there until they go broody or we take away the eggs. Whenever we steal their eggs, they choose a new nesting spot...

 

[tia]

One of my runners laid eggs in one corner of the pen... and she went broody, but she didn't do very good at sitting on the eggs.... they were around her and she was in the middle.... I finally pulled them all. She tried, but didn't quite have her act together. I find eggs in the middle of the pen, but sometimes in the corners like one of them is trying to get a nest going - I'm not really interested in them going broody though.

 

[duckyfromoz]

My Runners are locked up in the shed at night- and have laying boxes in each pen. If they dont use the nesting boxes- they make a nice little nest for themselves with hay in the corner. I let them have there nest for a few days- then move a nesting box into that corner- and more often than not- they continue to lay in the box.

If I let them out of the shed before they have laid an egg they do tend to just lay anywhere in the yard- but one duck has made a nice littl nest for herself outside and I often find an egg in there.