Sitting muscovy with diarrhea

[zanelee]

I have a wonderful female muscovy who is sitting on eggs that are due to hatch within a week. I noticed this morning while feeding her, that she has diarrhea. Should I be concerned, or is this something that will resolve itself once the eggs hatch?
She and our female pekin live with our 3 chickens. They are let out everyday to free range our yard. Rita (the muscovy) stays on her nest and doesn't leave it. Once I let the chickens and the pekin out, I close the door and Rita could have free range of the chicken house. Her nest is in a large kennel, and I close the kennel door at night when I let the rest of the herd back in. (One chicken, in particular, would like to chase her off so she could sit on the nest) I hand feed her our regular feed every morning and water her. (I have not seen her off the nest since very early in her sitting.)

Any suggestions?

 

[jdywntr]

Is she pooping in the nest? If so, you should remove her daily so that she can eat, drink and poop. Poopy eggs are covered in bacteria which can be a problem under the nice warm hen. Broody poop is gross since they typically hold it until they leave the nest 1-2 times a day. She should be leaving the nest at least 1x daily. Some broodies are very persistnat and need to be physically removed. I would place the food and water near her instead of hand feeding so that she needs to get up.

 

[zanelee]

Do you think I should just "build" her a new nest and move eggs and all to it? I was planning on moving them after the hatch anyway so the chickens would not bother her or the babies.
So, the diarrhea in itself isn't something to worry about?
As far as her getting up from the nest to eat (or anything else) it just doesn't happen. The last time she had a nest (she lived elsewhere then) she did the same thing. Apparently got very thin and all, but did fine once the hatch happened.
Thanks for your help.