Soooo, hows this gonna end?, two hens laying in the same nest.

[Ducklove334]

Lyra, my cayuga and one of my mallards(don't know who yet) have, for the past three days been laying in the SAME nest

there are 6 eggs, 3 mallards and 3 cayuga.

I know mallards go broody and Cayugas do too, but!

whats gonna happen in this case?, will they both go broody at the same time, and try to sit on the nest together?, the eggs are not two seperate nests in the same spot, but it's the mallards nest, she started laying there, then Lyra followed.

I know at the park I used to go to all the time in my home town, they had a pond and ducks, one year two sister PEKINS actually went broody on the same nest, and ended up hatching 4 ducklings, wich hey raised together. I was wondering if thats common???

my girls are odd anyways

 

[xfilesnumber1fan]

My 4 ducks 2 mallards and 1 crested and 1 white layer all lay in one nest..I have found all of them sitting on the nest...One at a time..Its funny...They never stay for long..

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
What you need to do is mark the new eggs every day until one of them does go broody. The other one will most likely still lay eggs in that nest, and you don't want to have a duckling hatching daily for a week or two!!

They could possibly go broody at the same time, but I doubt it. The ones you saw at the park probably had one start then the other one join in later.

If you mark the eggs each day until one goes broody, then you can take the new eggs out afterwards. Maybe set them close by, but not so close that mama will swipe them back? If that doesn't work, then keep them yourself, to hatch, or eat, or whatever. I haven't had a broody duck yet, I can't wait!! It's too cold right now to let them keep their eggs

 

[farmertank]

I had a muscovy and a Buff Orpington do that. The muscovy being bigger pushed the Buff out. But she stayed near the nest and when her's hatched she left with them and the Muscovy stayed till hers hatched. I'm not sure what kind of arrangment they had, but it worked for them.


Mallards can be mean. I bet the Mallard will be the one setting lol.

Julie

 

[Ducklove334]

will thier hierarchy eventually play some role on who sets the eggs??.

Lyra isn't a big-cheese, but shes somewhere in the middle, but so are the mallard girls,

 

[Ducklove334]

so Lyra laid another egg in a different nest spot (wierdo) so I took the three of her eggs that where in the mallards nest and put them with the other.

 

[ibpboo]

I had two hens go broody at the same time. One was a bantam and the other standard. They both sat on the nest at the same time. They also let the other hens still lay more eggs in there. It was so cute, the banty sat on top of the other a lot.
Well, I don't have a rooster, so I had to still collect the eggs, and that was one of the times I never bought chicks for the broody, so they didn't get to be mama's together.