Cayugas only laid for TWO years.

[sianara]

I am perplexed. My two Cayuga laid regularly for two years - nice black eggs. But this year i have not got a single egg from them. Only my WH is laying. Has this happened to anyone else? I can't find any articles on them stopping laying...

 

[Amiga]

I am watching, as only two of my runners started laying last week, after a six or seven month rest.

A couple of coincidences that may have affected their laying are that in October, I gave them an antibiotic - first time in their lives. And we brought in three new ducks, one of whom is a drake, and they really did not like him. So I am wondering if the stress of him around (the new three are once again in separate pens) has had its effect.

iamcuriositycat discovered that a garden hose was leaching a chemical that affects fertility.

That's what I can offer right now.

 

[sianara]

I just realized I never came back to this post with an update. Shortly after I posted I got to thinking about any possible reason they might not be laying eggs. I then realized I had taken their "nest box" out to clean it and decided to use it to hold their food and oyster shell containers instead. I kept thinking "Yeah, I'd better put another one in there..." but never did. Soooo, I got the bottom of my daughters old ferret cage (approx 24" x 32"), filled it with wood shavings and put it in the house. The next morning guess what I found? TWO eggs. One white and the other BLACK!!! Within the week the other girl started laying too so now they are all back to laying. Huh? Who woulda thunk? They wouldn't lay without a nest box... I figured they'd just drop the egg wherever they were lol. Guess not.

 

[Going Quackers]

Oh my! well it's great you got the issue resolved! ducks hate change, i put a new hanging feeder up awhile ago and i could barely get them in the barn!

 

[sianara]

These are the first ducks I've ever had that were so sensitive. The WH girl Charlene, lays wherever, whenever. lol

 

[Going Quackers]

Yeah, you can have some who just aren't picky!