25 week old Pekin - still not laying

[KoopOnTruckin]

Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit, but I'm slightly worried. I have a drake (very "frisky") and a hen Pekin Duck. I'm in the market to get 2-3 more females for him, but my question here is why she is not laying yet...

I raised them both with chicks, started on 24% protein for the first week, then dropped down to 20% for the next 8 weeks or so. Then dropped to 18% for a few weeks, now they're on 16% layer feed and have been for the last 3 months or so. They also free range quite a bit, eating weeds and various bugs. They forage more than they eat the provided feed. They have a pond, and she doesn't seem stressed at all by the drake.

So is it possible that she's not laying yet because she's too stressed from the constant friskiness, or maybe the feed %s have been off? Or... maybe I'm just crazy and should wait another week to let nature take it's course a bit further before overreacting?

 

[sallysinnamon]

I would say give her a little longer. Just because she has reached laying age it doesn't mean the second she's old enough she will lay. Give her a bit more time.

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

I would say give her a little longer. Just because she has reached laying age it doesn't mean the second she's old enough she will lay. Give her a bit more time.

That's what I figured, I'm just too much in my own head. I'll give it another week or so (but I'll think about it hourly) to see what happens. I'm excited to finally get a duck egg!!

Thank you Sally!

 

[sallysinnamon]

No worries. I remember being a new duck owner. I'm a first-time chicken owner and my chickens are now just starting to lay. Its exciting. They all laid within a week or two of each other. She will lay when shes ready. she's not under any distress or anything so I wouldn't worry.

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

My ducks are just over 27 weeks old now, and this morning I started getting concerned that she would never lay. I went out this afternoon to really search high and low to find any spot that she may be laying, just to rule out the chance that I may just not be finding her eggs. Yep, that was the case!

I went into an unused pen and inside the pen there is an old dog cage that I use for my younger chicks before they are placed in the mobile pen. I gently brushed the pine shavings that line the bottom, and there was an egg! I brushed a little more away and found a total of 3 eggs!! Slightly off-white, larger than normal chicken eggs - BOOM! Very cool, very excited! Now I'll give her a week or so to get a few out of her system, then I'll collect and incubate a couple to add to the flock.

All of that worrying for nothing...

P.S. As I'm writing this, I'm looking out the window and see her looking inside the cage, brushing her beak around in the pine shavings. She's not broody, she just seems confused as to where they may have gone. The drake is following her for a change, seems concerned for her as well.

 

[sallysinnamon]

Awesome! Glad she's laying! Some lay early some lay late..no need to worry! Good luck with incubating!