According the Oliver, the site of the pukeko's nest is perhaps most often in a raupo swamp where a large untidy structure of raupo leaves a foot or so high is built. Other sites are under large tussocks of flax, sedge or grass. I myself have found nests, neatly hidden from view, in the long fescue grass on the banks of the Waiotahi River in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
Pukeko have an extended nesting season usually from August to March but males may be seen treading the female as late as April and it is not unusual to see small chicks late in Autumn.
Groups rather than pairs often occupy territories. Groups can consist of two or more laying females and at least one male and all share the incubation. Groups can also contain non-breeding helpers, offspring from previous broods that help in the feeding and caring for chicks. So each chick may have an aunt or uncle as a minder. This ability to cooperate accounts for much of their success as a species.
Each female lay up to six buff eggs with blotches of brown at the larger end. The eggs are roughly 50mm x 35 mm in size. Several hens may lay in the same nest so clutches may be very large.
Pukeko chicks are clothed along the spinal and other tracts with silver tipped blackish down, the crown of their heads are bald.
Jameison and Craig have writen extensively on the cooperative breeding habits of pukekos and assert that a dominant or alpha female may control the number of eggs laid in the nest.
