Muscovy nest relocation / brood boxes?!

[Portugal Muscovy Novice]

Good Morning! I have two problems at the moment. I know little about ducks, let alone Muscovy Ducks. Im more of a chicken man up to now. I built the ducks a house close to our dam and they loved it a lot. All three of my hens slept inside the Duck house until one of my lambs started frequenting it during the day for some shade. The lamb is now "dispatched" so its not happening anymore but before the lamb became a roast, one of my muscovy hens started laying eggs inside the house, but stopped at two when the Lamb incident started. That's fine, she is sitting religiously on those two precious eggs of hers still (almost three weeks now).

Now one of the other hens started laying underneath the house and have laid 7 already (only discovered that this morning). I don't want to move the eggs inside the house as I'm worried she will stop laying like the first one did after interference or might not even know I put the eggs inside anyway (I can't catch her unless I traumatise her by grabbing her as she is trying to lay another egg.)

I don't lock them up at night at present but want to start as I'm worried about their safety

My question is can I remove her clutch of eggs once she has stopped laying eggs and incubate them in my incubator to ensure survival

OR

do I move the clutch inside the house, catch her and lock her and the other duck with the two eggs (already) inside the Duck house overnight hopefully reprogramming her to sit on the eggs which she will see is hers?

My other question is do they need separate brood boxes/seperated areas or can they sit side by side.

Its a big duck house that's about 2 x 2 x 2 Metres in size and can very comfortably accommodate all three hens if it comes to that.

I did search through the threads to see if anyone asked this before but couldn't find a conclusive answer. If I missed it, I apologise and please point me in the right direction.

 

[sourland]

Although I have relocated many broody chicken hens, it's never worked for me with ducks. I'd take the eggs and incubate them.

 

[Portugal Muscovy Novice]

Update, I found my answer in posts relating to ducks (not exclusively to Muscvovies.) I now accept that I can't move the nest and they will lay eggs wherever they feel like, so will take the eggs once she stops laying and incubate them in my incubator. I'll try and reunite them after they hatch but I know now this won't necessarily be successful. I wish I didn't bother with such a fancy house...lol

 

[Portugal Muscovy Novice]

Although I have relocated many broody chicken hens, it's never worked for me with ducks. I'd take the eggs and incubate them.

yes im starting to think along these lines, I've been reading through all the Duck posts not relating to Muscovies and it looks like this will be the best approach.

 

[Portugal Muscovy Novice]

Update for future searches on this post: I removed the eggs from underneath the Duck house and placed them inside. She stopped laying altogether and never visited her eggs inside the duck house. I suspected she started laying elsewhere but to my surprise she is still continuing to lay eggs underneath the Duck house. In the meantime I've moved the eggs to my incubator as to not waste the fertile eggs.

My next step;
I will leave her until she finished laying and consistently sits on them (brood). I will remove the eggs and place her and the eggs in the Duck house with all her nesting material and lock her in there for 24 hours. If this does not reset her urge to lay elsewhere I will incubate the additional eggs myself. I saw another gentleman on here mentioned that his ducks tend to lay in the mornings and what worked for him is to Keep them inside the duck house until the eggs are laid and then open for them to venture out. I will try this, so will keep the duck house closed until she does and let her out after that every day. I just hope I can get her back in at night again!

 

[Portugal Muscovy Novice]

All is well and the above mentioned method worked. I also made separate brooding boxes as they were fighting with each other but all three are sitting and I managed to get six ducklings (which I removed from the mother due to not being safe). All happy on the Montado!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Pictures when you can.