Im new to keeping Ducks so would appreciate some advice
I have a lovely huge pond so I decided to give a home to some rescue Ducks 1 Drake 1 Female both Perkin 1 Aylesbury 2 Saxony 1 Rouen these are female so a flock of 6
Before I got them I built a nice pen and enclosure very near to the pond
When I first got them they would not go near the pen or enclosure so I had to leave them be I'm lucky as my garden pond is enclosed so they seem safe ( fingers crossed) and it's very near the house so I can see them
They will now go in the enclosure and pen as I left the door open for them to explore themselves which they have
2 of the girls have started laying eggs but not in the pen which has lovely straw and wood chip in they lay them on the gravel stone the 2 girls that are laying have made a kind of hollow shape in the gravel one girl lays one egg and the other girl lays 2 eggs
They seem to lay them really early in the morning as well I'd say between 5am and 6.45 as I'm going out there just before the sun rise 6.45 and finding the laid eggs I'm also finding that there always seems to be one egg out of the 3 that gets a slight cracked like it's been pecked at by the duck maybe is this normal would they do this ?
When I pick up the eggs they go back to look for them as well
I've seen the drake mating the girls but the eggs don't seem to be fertilised either as no red dots in the egg yolks
Sorry for long post just trying explain wants going on I would like to try and encourage the girls to lay in the pen any advice in how I could do this as there has been a pair of magpies hanging around as well but it was very early for them and just light this morning so I don't think a magpie pecked this mornings egg but could have done others hard to tell.