Sad Pekin Duck, advice please

[BCchick]

My pekin duck just started laying eggs yesterday. We got one egg yesterday and one egg today. She is climbing up the little ramp we have for the hens to get to the nesting boxes and laying in there, even though we made her her own nesting box on the floor of the coop. Anyway, this morning after we took her second egg inside with us, she began acting very sad. She just sat in the corner of the coop and stared up at the nesting box like she was missing her eggs. Will she eventually understand and get used to the fact that we will take them each day? We felt awful seeing her just staring at her empty nest box.

 

[duckyfromoz]

Some of my ducks will watch me pick up the eggs each morning, I ued to always try to do it in a way so that they didnt see- but regardless of if they see or not- with their next visit to the nest - there are no eggs there. You may have a duck with particularly strong maternal instincts - or maybe are just putting too much human emotion into what you are seeing with your duck. It could be that with this being her first few eggs she is in the corner in a bit of pain... I just mean to give you examples to show there are a few different possibilities to her behavior. They do get extremely protective of their nests when they actually start to sit on a clutch of eggs, but this also is very instinctual behavior rather than emotional.

 

[Amiga]

Just in case, I put a few wooden eggs in the nests my runners make. A few go broody, but it's not a major broody - they'll leave the nest for treats or food or walks or . . . but then at some point they run back and sit on the nest for a while.

 

[BCchick]

Thanks for the replies. She did come out and acted normal the rest of the day. Guess we'll see how she does the next few days.