time for my dumb questions

[Mom 2em All]

Well, we won't call them dumb- we will call them, "learning".
I have four muscovy hens and a runner-mix. Two drake muscovies. I have been getting an average of three-four eggs a day for a couple weeks now. I just recently started collecting- and not eating- the eggs, until the number is up to 11 (would be thirteen but I dropped one onto another..

). The reason I have been collecting them instead of leaving them in the nest is because the temps are down in the teens at night, and the eggs freeze.

Question is this:
Muscovies wait until they have a large number before they start sitting. So, if I keep taking the eggs, they dont get that "big number" and they dont go broody? Or if I put a large number out there, will they go broody? My original plan was to collect the eggs, then put a large amount out there and have a duck say: OH, time to sit. lol
I am trying to avoid the waste of them freezing, the waste of sticking a bunch out there and they all just keep laying...and the eggs go bad..

Im trying to mess with Mother Nature and need some help.
They have chosen an old raised rabbit hutch full of straw to be their nest of choice. One is a rebel and lays her egg under the hutch in a hollowed out area of the ground. I collect that egg too.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Well it (broodyness) is a hormone thing and they go broody when the hormones strike. It is MHO that a large number of eggs in a nest effects the hormones of Muscovies but I have seen them go broody on just one egg, or a doorknob, or a stone shapped like a egg....
Risk an egg leave it in the nest and see if it is frozen the next day, Muscovies will often sleep on a nest to keep eggs from freezing, I used to lose more eggs to freezing during the day because the duck would go about her bussiness in the light and go back to the nest at night.

 

[Mom 2em All]

the reason I started gathering them was because they were freezing and splitting lengthwise. At night, they all gather up on either their straw bales by the coop or under the shelter thing I made them in the Fall.

I dont want to force them to be broody, but I dont want to be preventing it either.

 

[sourland]

As goosedragon has said, they will go broody in their own good time. I once had a muscovy/mallard mule that went broody on some apples that she rolled into her nest. Hopefully it will soon be warm enough that you can leave the eggs outside.

 

[Mom 2em All]

I guess I am having a hard time wording what I was asking.
I know they go broody when they want to- but they arent like a Silkie who suddenly flattens out over a stone and says, "Mine"...are they? They wait until they have laid a large amount before they begin to sit.
I dont have any way of knowing if they are going to sit on their eggs until there is a large amount out there. I collect eggs every day- does that mean they arent going to go broody- no eggs to sit on? OR, if I leave them and they dont go broody, then the eggs have been wasted.

Perhaps I should buy three dozen wooden eggs and replace what real eggs I take each day- then if they decide to sit, I will know.

 

[sourland]

Although eggs may stimulate them to set, they will set when the hormones tell them to whether or not eggs are present. Prior to setting, they will start pulling and adding down to the nest. You can use this as an indicator. If buying and adding fake eggs to the nest is your desire, go for it. It will make you happier and may make the ducks happier. Do you have a way of keeping the other ducks away from this site when one goes broody? If not, they will continue laying eggs in the nest causing an overload of eggs.

 

[Mom 2em All]

Yep, I will be able to separate them.