30 week old Magpie ducks not laying

[Birdnubie]

First, I want to express my gratitude to this community. I have been able to get great advice and answers to my duck and chicken questions which have helped me resolve some issues and take better care of my birds.

Now my question. I have 8 magpie ducks, which I bought from Tractor Supply as ducklings. I ended up with 3 female ducks and 5 drakes! Really bad ratio. Anyway, they will be 30 weeks old next week and only one of the females have started to lay eggs. I have not found any evidence that the other two ducks are laying yet. The one that is laying started at week 24 (Nov. 9th). I am in East Texas. I have seen the dominant drake mate with all three ducks. He also chases, picks on, and mounts one of the other drakes in the pond pretty often. I have not seen any of the other drakes try to mate with tte ducks, but I am not around all the time. What is causing the two ducks not to lay? Too many drakes around? Shorter days? Would unfavorable factors affect the two non-laying ducks, but not the other duck who is laying?

Thank you in advance.

 

[ruthhope]

First, I want to express my gratitude to this community. I have been able to get great advice and answers to my duck and chicken questions which have helped me resolve some issues and take better care of my birds.

Now my question. I have 8 magpie ducks, which I bought from Tractor Supply as ducklings. I ended up with 3 female ducks and 5 drakes! Really bad ratio. Anyway, they will be 30 weeks old next week and only one of the females have started to lay eggs. I have not found any evidence that the other two ducks are laying yet. The one that is laying started at week 24 (Nov. 9th). I am in East Texas. I have seen the dominant drake mate with all three ducks. He also chases, picks on, and mounts one of the other drakes in the pond pretty often. I have not seen any of the other drakes try to mate with tte ducks, but I am not around all the time. What is causing the two ducks not to lay? Too many drakes around? Shorter days? Would unfavorable factors affect the two non-laying ducks, but not the other duck who is laying?

Thank you in advance.

Hi @Birdnubie
your females are not laying as the days are short. They will start laying as the days lengthen in the spring.

Before then, please address the sex imbalance as your alpha male will harm those other drakes -- mounting one is bad enough but it could get ugly. Rehoming drakes is difficult: Can you buy sexed female ducklings from a hachery to give 4 females per drake? It would be wsie to separate the four drakes lower in the pecking order into a separate run and coop from Alpha drake and the females

 

[BabyGotQuack]

First, I want to express my gratitude to this community. I have been able to get great advice and answers to my duck and chicken questions which have helped me resolve some issues and take better care of my birds.

Now my question. I have 8 magpie ducks, which I bought from Tractor Supply as ducklings. I ended up with 3 female ducks and 5 drakes! Really bad ratio. Anyway, they will be 30 weeks old next week and only one of the females have started to lay eggs. I have not found any evidence that the other two ducks are laying yet. The one that is laying started at week 24 (Nov. 9th). I am in East Texas. I have seen the dominant drake mate with all three ducks. He also chases, picks on, and mounts one of the other drakes in the pond pretty often. I have not seen any of the other drakes try to mate with tte ducks, but I am not around all the time. What is causing the two ducks not to lay? Too many drakes around? Shorter days? Would unfavorable factors affect the two non-laying ducks, but not the other duck who is laying?

Thank you in advance.

I have the same situation going on. 2 females who should have started laying mid October but only one did. She has been laying every day since.

I have a good ratio of male to female so I don’t think that has anything to do with it. But as @ruthhope suggested your ratio is off and should be corrected for other reasons.

I assume my other female, as well as yours, will start laying in the spring.

 

[Birdnubie]

Hi @Birdnubie
your females are not laying as the days are short. They will start laying as the days lengthen in the spring.

Before then, please address the sex imbalance as your alpha male will harm those other drakes -- mounting one is bad enough but it could get ugly. Rehoming drakes is difficult: Can you buy sexed female ducklings from a hachery to give 4 females per drake? It would be wsie to separate the four drakes lower in the pecking order into a separate run and coop from Alpha drake and the females

 

[Birdnubie]

Thank you for your replies. At least one of the ducks is giving me a delicious egg daily. I will wait patiently for the other two.

I have a small isolation pen that currently houses a bullied rooster. I am thinking of moving 4 of the drakes into that pen with the rooster until I can figure something out. Ducks are so messy with their water so the rooster will not be happy, but I don’t know what to do until I can rehome the rooster.

Should I leave the dominant drake with 3 ducks or should I choose a more laid-back drake to keep for the sake of the ducks?

 

[ruthhope]

Thank you for your replies. At least one of the ducks is giving me a delicious egg daily. I will wait patiently for the other two.

I have a small isolation pen that currently houses a bullied rooster. I am thinking of moving 4 of the drakes into that pen with the rooster until I can figure something out. Ducks are so messy with their water so the rooster will not be happy, but I don’t know what to do until I can rehome the rooster.

Should I leave the dominant drake with 3 ducks or should I choose a more laid-back drake to keep for the sake of the ducks?

I think that the dominant drake might continue to bully the other drakes if he is put into drake jail with the other drakes. I might be wrong. You could try him out in the drake jail and leave another with the females, and if it doesn't go well, put him with the females and bring back the other drake. Or you can just leave him with the females and rescue the other drakes and keep them separate.

 

[BabyGotQuack]

Thank you for your replies. At least one of the ducks is giving me a delicious egg daily. I will wait patiently for the other two.

I have a small isolation pen that currently houses a bullied rooster. I am thinking of moving 4 of the drakes into that pen with the rooster until I can figure something out. Ducks are so messy with their water so the rooster will not be happy, but I don’t know what to do until I can rehome the rooster.

Should I leave the dominant drake with 3 ducks or should I choose a more laid-back drake to keep for the sake of the ducks?

Waiting patiently is hard! I cross my fingers every time I go get eggs that the other has started laying, even though realistically she won’t til spring.

I also have 4 other ladies, Cayugas & Saxonys, that just turned 5 months so they could lay any day. But here we are mid December and dark at 5 pm or so. I’m not holding my breath and figure they’ll lay their first eggs in spring. But I still got those fingers crossed every morning

Sorry, not much help on the drake situation but I think @ruthhope always has good drake advice

 

[Miss Lydia]

Be sure to keep an eye on the drakes in with the rooster. make sure the rooster has a way of staying out of the way of the drakes. Place food and water up away from the drakes so the rooster can eat and drink.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I have the same issue out of my 6 younger ducks only one started to lay before the winter hit the other 5 never did
I think they will start in spring
3 out of my 5 older ducks stopped for winter and 2 are still laying
I agree with the others that you may need more girls to keep those boys content
I myself haven’t followed the 4-7 girls per male but I could never have more boys then girls as this is dangerous to both the girls in high Mate season and the other two drakes
When I was slightly outnumbered with mature drakes and to young of females I had to separate the drakes and only let 1-2 out with the girls so things didn’t get ugly
All my girls are old enough to mate now so everyone is together

 

[Birdnubie]

I think that the dominant drake might continue to bully the other drakes if he is put into drake jail with the other drakes. I might be wrong. You could try him out in the drake jail and leave another with the females, and if it doesn't go well, put him with the females and bring back the other drake. Or you can just leave him with the females and rescue the other drakes and keep them separate.

Ok, I will just leave the dominant drake with the 3 female ducks. Thank you for your input!

Be sure to keep an eye on the drakes in with the rooster. make sure the rooster has a way of staying out of the way of the drakes. Place food and water up away from the drakes so the rooster can eat and drink.

Thanks for that advice, Miss Lydia. I am hoping the rooster will not have to be in there with the drakes too long.