Do your ducks lay eggs willy-nilly or is there a way to make them lay in a general area?

Most domestic ducks will lay in nest boxes if you give them some. The nest boxes should be on the ground near a structure or bushes.

Keith

Thanks man

Ours will lay in designated nests but also drop eggs pretty much anywhere.

Our khaki campbells and mallard types, swedish etc are random but in a general area. Our muscovies pretty much build a nest in particular area and are much, much better at hatching off their own after building a nest. Ducks are a mess but we do enjoy them around. I very much enjoy watching them camp out by a carcass and catch flies.......

We do have issues with our ducks laying on chicken nests as well - very common for us at least to have duck eggs in with our chicken nests.

Why do they do that just wondering? I see wild turkeys that do that too.

For birds in captivity, where the eggs are usually incubated, the birds that pass on the most of their genes, by having the most offspring, are the ones that never go broody and set, that lay lots more eggs, than those that will lay and set clutches of eggs. We have bred the ability to set and hatch their own eggs out of most breeds of chickens and coturnix quail. Many domestic ducks are non setters, but probably some of most breeds will still set.

Muscovy ducks are a different species from the mallard duck derived breeds we keep domestically. They are closer to the wild type and most set well.

Keith