Young Duck Laying in the Pond

[ekaelliott]

I have a young duck (she was a duckling in the Spring) who just recently started laying. She has laid about half of her eggs in the nestbox (at night) and about half of them in the pond (presumably during the day). Any thoughts on how to re-direct her to the nestbox for all of the eggs?

 

[GitaBooks]

I've never heard of a duck laying in the pond. How early do you let them out of their coop?

 

[Amiga]

I have heard of laying in water - it has happened just a handful of times with our flock. I am not really sure what possesses them to do that, except that most often, ducks have a time of day they tend to lay and if that is also when they are in water, well, they lay in the water.

 

[ekaelliott]

Hmmm. Sounds like maybe she will grow out of it? I'm hoping that it is just related to her being new to laying and that it hasn't regulated yet or something. Ugh. I hope so!

 

[Amiga]

When my ducks first started laying, they seemed rather surprised when an egg showed up between their feet.

 

[crys4nr]

I have at least one girl that does this on occasion in her bigger pool, not her really small kiddie pool. She tends to sleep in the pool, my only guess is because usually the boys don't bother her there? That's a different problem I'm working on. Since it's big it doesn't get cleaned out every day like the little one, and those eggs aren't edible. It would be nice if she would grow out of it, they have only been laying for a month, so we'll see.