BeaverBendFarm
Hatching
- Jul 20, 2015
- 2
- 0
- 7
We have just added ducks to our flock (we have been raising chickens for ~3 years now); our ducks just recently started laying eggs. . .all the sudden I stopped finding duck eggs..
I saw a little burrow under the hardware cloth at the base of our coop and I thought it might be from a rat. . .and the rat was getting my duck eggs since they laid the eggs on the ground instead of a nesting box above the ground. I filled the burrow and stacked heavy rocks around the are just to see what would happen and the burrow was opened back up the next day. . .a new burrow under the rocks. I went out tonight to peek under the coop and see if I could see anything living under there. . .lo and behold there was a stockpile of duck eggs under the coop.
Now I wouldn't put it past the ducks to lay their eggs under the coop (they were laying them under the roost before they went missing), but I didn't think the burrow was anywhere near large enough for the ducks (although the female Fawn & White Indian Runners are pretty small and slender).
So my question is. . .are my ducks just sneakier and more clever than I gave them credit for, or would a rat collect eggs, carry them under the coop, and pile them up to save them??? I didn't see any broken/eaten eggs, but it was dark and there isn't a lot of space under the coop so it was very hard to get a very accurate idea of what was going on. . .I will have to pull the hardware cloth off the bottom of the coop to retrieve the eggs and reinstall it afterward (don't worry I already have a plan to keep stuff from burrowing under in the future).
Thanks for the help and input!!!
I saw a little burrow under the hardware cloth at the base of our coop and I thought it might be from a rat. . .and the rat was getting my duck eggs since they laid the eggs on the ground instead of a nesting box above the ground. I filled the burrow and stacked heavy rocks around the are just to see what would happen and the burrow was opened back up the next day. . .a new burrow under the rocks. I went out tonight to peek under the coop and see if I could see anything living under there. . .lo and behold there was a stockpile of duck eggs under the coop.
Now I wouldn't put it past the ducks to lay their eggs under the coop (they were laying them under the roost before they went missing), but I didn't think the burrow was anywhere near large enough for the ducks (although the female Fawn & White Indian Runners are pretty small and slender).
So my question is. . .are my ducks just sneakier and more clever than I gave them credit for, or would a rat collect eggs, carry them under the coop, and pile them up to save them??? I didn't see any broken/eaten eggs, but it was dark and there isn't a lot of space under the coop so it was very hard to get a very accurate idea of what was going on. . .I will have to pull the hardware cloth off the bottom of the coop to retrieve the eggs and reinstall it afterward (don't worry I already have a plan to keep stuff from burrowing under in the future).
Thanks for the help and input!!!
