What is happening to my flock?

I am so depressed and frustrated right now. I don't know what is happening to my flock, but it's getting to be overwhelming. In the five months since we've increased our flock, (we originally had two Mallard drakes and we now have 16 ducks total) we have had more problems than we did with our first two ducks in over a year of ownership. I'm starting to wonder if we've done something wrong with these. I just posted yesterday about my drake with the eye infection that we are treating now. I went out to the coop to feed everyone just a few minutes ago, and I found this in one of our other ducks.


I have no idea what that yellow stuff is on the side of her face. Does anyone know what it could be? I'm hoping this is not some sort of infection as well.

Then, one of my other ducks fanned out her wings and I noticed that her feathers are disappearing! She barely has any wings left anymore. Below is a picture of her--this is what she looks like while she's walking (she's the Buff Orpington in the right side of the picture between the Mallard and the Khaki Campbell).




In the pic above, she is the brown duck in the forefront of the picture. Unfortunately, she wouldn't let me get any closer. I haven't noticed any of the other ducks attacking her, so I don't know if her feathers are being pulled out when I'm not around or if this is a sign of some sort of disease. (She is the duck I posted about a month ago that we had to operate on her foot to remove a mass).

Also, the back wing feathers on one of my Mallard drakes is starting to look dingy and frayed like hers did at the beginning.

I don't know if any of these things I am dealing with are related, but I don't want to lose any of my flock. If someone could help me out, I would appreciate it. I just don't know what else to do....

Is that a dirt floor or poo?

could they be molting?

Might you have an egg eater on your hands? It almost looks like egg yolk in the first pic.

Ducks molt pretty dramatically. My mallards can no longer fly when they are molting, and they look a mess.

BayBay Peepers said:

Is that a dirt floor or poo?

Click to expand...

It's a dirt floor. It just gets messy when it rains and it has rained a lot over the past couple of days.

I didn't think about molting. Maybe that is what's wrong. I sure hope that's all it is. This is the first summer we've had her so I don't know what's normal for her.

As far as the egg eater thing goes, maybe that's what it is. One of our ducks has been laying soft eggs lately (she's a new layer and we've recently added free choice oyster shells to the coop for the girls). We've only been finding the soft shells, not the yolk. Is there a way to stop a duck from eating eggs?