Breed Early?

[Duckbreeder2020]

breed? they can mate at that age but actually breeding (hatching the eggs) you should wait until 10-12 months so the babies are more likely to survive (unless a parent is crested then never breed)

Oh ok phew thanks. The male was Pekin and hen was buff so no crested thank you!

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

Oh ok phew thanks. The male was Pekin and hen was buff so no crested thank you!

neither are broody breeds anyways so if u do want to hatch next year i recommend an incubator

 

[Duckbreeder2020]

neither are broody breeds anyways so if u do want to hatch next year i recommend an incubator

I’ve had a broody buff. Many people on BYC have to? I read that they usually go broody

 

[Miss Lydia]

My Runners were breeding at 4 months

 

[MotherOfDuckens]

I'm still new to ducks and learning myself, but my white layers and Pekins started mating I want to say just shy of four months. I had both a Pekin and a Cayuga drake, and it was actually the ladies that were harassing the guys to start mating. The layers started laying a couple/few weeks after the mating started. I had no plans of actually breeding (incubating and hatching) and I have heard that you should wait until they are at least 6 months old to start breeding. When I cracked open the first batches of eggs I checked for fertility just for a data point, and almost all of the layer eggs were fertilized. The Pekins slightly less so. The Cayugas have been a little later on maturing, they were later on mating, and I am still waiting for them to start laying. I believe for the first stretch of time they went through the motions of mating, but were not actually completing the act, so to speak. After a couple weeks I started to hear a sqeak from the ladies when the Cayuga fell off, leading me to believe they were no longer rehearsing. ;-)