Why are my ducks rolling the eggs out of the nest boxes.

[saulsberry]

Two of my 5 month old ducks, one khacki, one mallard, a white crested, and a rouen, just started laying . One lays in the nest box (probably the mallard I see her in there the most), and one lays out in the main part of the floor(probably the white crested, she is always dirty like shes dug a pit in the poo covered section where the ducks congregate at night) .

Every morning I go to open their door and check for eggs, any that aren't in nests I put them in a nest in hopes they will get broody sooner.

Yesterday I bought some duck eggs from a friend and put a few in the other nest boxes so the girls might be more inclined to use them, dummy eggs if you will, and I got up this morning and they had rolled the bought eggs out into the floor and smashed one that the mallard was sitting on.

Why do they roll some of the eggs out and do they know that those eggs weren't from our flock is that why they started smashing and eating the eggs? I ended up wasting 9 eggs that my ducks laid because they were covered in poo and yolk and would not of hatched with all that goo on it.

I cleaned out the duckhouse today and re-distributed 2 farm bought eggs per each of the 3 nesting boxes to act as dummy eggs, and gave my mallard her own little space all to her self, which means there are 3 possible nest spots and 3 hens so I am hoping they don't have to compete for nests.

Why do they push the eggs out of the nest? Are they too young to go broody? If they go broody will they hatch eggs that are not theirs?
?

Thanks Everyone,
Jen

 

[farm316]

1.) Rounes are very heavy ducks, they could be accidentally braking the eggs under the weight. Which still doesn't help the question of why do they roll the eggs out.

2. In the wild, females Will roll/discard the eggs from the nest because she can tell that they are not fertilized

3. You may have an egg eater. When hens eat eggs they see that if they brake the shell they get the goo tasting egg. You might want to try the hard fake eggs. As you mentioned, keep us updated please

 

[saulsberry]

The good news is no crushed eggs today, none of the dummy eggs rolled out, and all were burried in straw. I keep forgetting to get some golf balls at the store.

Only one egg this morning, I think form the white crested, shes always on the nest where the egg was.

The mallard didnt lay an egg today but I did change her routine, I have her back on the half of the yard with the male mallard Pinky, he was lonley over there by himself anyway and was starting to give himself bumblefoot trying to climb the fence.


Whoo Hoo

 

[farm316]

Thats great!

 

[Trexroo]

My grandfather would have me risk life and limb against the buff geese to take all the eggs out and add some clean straw to the bottom portion of the bowl of the nest.then put the eggs back in. This helps to reduce the side on pressure the eggs take on when the hen is sitting. We would do this when there seamed to be a lot of broken eggs or" escapee " eggs. The hen might also reject eggs if she feels the nest is" cluttered.