How long do Muscovy ducks lay eggs?

[ladyarabella]

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Hi, I'm a beginner with a question about Muscovy ducks. At what age will my drake be fertile? I have 9 girls with 1 drake. 2 proven broody layers with their 5 daughters from a different drake. Then I purchased a young unrelated drake who was sold with 3 young girls. The Drake does not yet have the red colour all the way up his face, so I know he is still young. What age can a drake mate and fertilise eggs? One of my girls has 8 eggs in a clutch and is laying one per day. I don't know whether to leave them for her to hatch or not? We are in Melbourne Australia thanks Jo

I'm pretty sure it's 8/9 months

 

[Cass]

Thanks for all the info...I am new to ducks and wish I had gotten them before I got chickens. I would have skipped the chickens. I LOVE my ducks.

Funny story about ducks and chickens living together. My duck started laying in the run. I took her eggs. She decided that was not to her liking so she started laying in the coop, UNDER the nest boxes....I figured that was a GOOD place for a nest so I let her start a clutch of eggs under there. The chickens started laying there too. I just took the chicken eggs away...since duck eggs are much larger (and white) it was easy to pick out the brown, blue and green chicken eggs. After she got 10 eggs under there a chicken decided that she wanted to sit on them and hatch some babies. (She was one of the ones laying in the clutch) So she started to sit there and gave the duck a hard time when she came to lay another egg. Once the clutch was 19 eggs the duck started to sit. So now I have a duck and a hen sitting on 19 eggs and shifting them back and forth depending on who was sitting at the moment. 2 weeks into the 30 days ANOTHER chicken, who had been laying there, decided to butt in and sit on the clutch. LOL So I go away for the weekend and assure my boyfriend that the ducklings won't hatch while I was gone. I should have kept my mouth shut. They hatched that night. I get home and boyfriend is yelling "get over here, NOW". I am like "why?" He says "there are ducklings ALL OVER THE PLACE". ROFL. He didn't lie. The 3 mommas were fighting over the ducklings and they were kicking them all over the coop. I gathered them all up. Put them in a laundry basket and took them outside to a secure area. THEN I had to pick up one really peeved Momma duck (watch out for that defensive pooping) and put her out with the ducklings. 19 of 19 hatched. I didn't want that many ducks. Ever. So I sold them as day olds. She was allowed to keep 5 of them. That's enough ducks for my small set up.

I will tell you that she looked and looked and looked for the babies as I sold them. I would go in and catch the ducklings to sell and she was not happy with me at all. I can't imagine if I had taken them all....she never would have forgiven me. Ever.

So I think next time I allow them to hatch ducklings I am going to sell some of the adults and keep the babies, cuz if momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Right?

 

[zoofolk]

My female Muscovy started laying eggs 3 weeks ago.....and she suddenly stopped. She was laying one egg each day. Should I be worried? Her eggs were always nice and hard. She is a lone duck that lives in the house....part of the family. I just want her to get egg bound. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[zoofolk]

Mine laid one egg a day for 3 weeks and just stopped. I'm worried. There is no male ducks. She's a house duck. I put some fake eggs in there and she started to lay on them and looked so content. I was told this wasn't a good idea and to take the eggs out. This morning there was no egg. Hope I didn't mess her up. She's a Muscovy.

 

[BlackChicken]

@zoofolk Muscovies lay in clutches, so they will only produce about 10-20 eggs and then they take a brief break (or sit and hatch them if you let them), so what yours is doing is normal. They normally lay about 3 or 4 clutches in the warmer months. Since the eggs aren't fertile, there is no point in having her sit on them, because she will do that for a while thinking they will eventually hatch. When she's actively laying, the fake eggs are good to keep in the nest because if you pull the eggs and leave an empty nest, she may hide the eggs elsewhere.
Also, I think you might be thinking of a different word-not egg bound- because that is not something you want. I don't have experience with it, but it means that the bird is unable to lay an egg.

 

[zoofolk]

I had a cockatiel that got egg bound and we had to take her to the vet. So she (my duck) laid about 21 or so eggs and then stopped. I don't need to worry? Thanks so much for the reply. It did make me feel better. I will check back later for another response.

 

[zoofolk]

Plus she was drinking water like crazy and eating a lot during the egg laying.....but has backed off and is back to normal.

 

[BlackChicken]

That is around the number of eggs our muscovies would lay before becoming broody (sometimes more, sometimes less).. If you said she is sitting on the nest and seems content, she's probably not egg bound, just broody.. In which case, she's only going to leave once or twice a day to eat, drink, and clean.. Does that seem like what she's doing? I don't have any firsthand experience with an egg bound bird, so I can't tell you for certain but maybe someone else can chime in. However, 21 eggs would be a decent sized clutch and around the time when she stops.

 

[zoofolk]

She first started out laying one egg a day. She would stand near it, but never sit on it. I would just take it out. After a couple of weeks I put the fake eggs in there......and she began to sit on them in addition to her daily egg. Now no egg today. And she's acting just like she did before she started to lay eggs. Not drinking or eating like crazy, just normal now.

 

[zoofolk]

And her poop was really runny while laying eggs and now it has returned to normal.