Changing Drakes - How Long Between Fertilized Eggs From New Drake

[Tennessee Tranquility]

So, I only have one white duck hen laying now (she was TSC mixed lot, so not sure if Pekin or White Layer). I'm starting incubator for eggs with current drake, but have another drake in separate pen and want to raise her eggs from him also. How long after I switch drakes should I wait?

(I tried searching this out, but didn't find answer so I appreciate all the expert advice people provide here. Love this forum!!)

 

[nuthatched]

With chickens, it can be up to 6 weeks (usually a month), not sure if it's different for ducks.

 

[Tennessee Tranquility]

With chickens and probably ducks, it's best to change "roommates" at night, right? (Although it doesn't seem like ducks they sleep much at night. The camera catches them moving around a lot.)

 

[KathiQuacks]

I’ve read that 3 weeks is best for ducks, but in some cases they’ve been fertile longer.

As for Pekin or White Layer, Pekins have deep orange bills and can be 8+ lbs, whereas White Layers will have pale, pinkish bills and only get up to about 5 lbs. You could also post a picture.

 

[NatJ]

So, I only have one white duck hen laying now (she was TSC mixed lot, so not sure if Pekin or White Layer). I'm starting incubator for eggs with current drake, but have another drake in separate pen and want to raise her eggs from him also. How long after I switch drakes should I wait?

Are they all the same kind?

If the two drakes would produce different-colored babies, you could just sort them after they hatch instead of waiting in between.

(I tried searching this out, but didn't find answer so I appreciate all the expert advice people provide here. Love this forum!!)

I don't personally know, so I tried searching too. It is definitely hard to find much!

I found an older thread on this forum, where someone says to allow one month between removing the old drake, and starting to collect eggs if you want the babies to be fathered by the new drake.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/length-of-fertility-for-ducks.969672/


I found a writeup of one study about fertility duration in ducks.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18359507/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0093691X08000587
(Two links, same stuff each place.)

The most useful bit seemed to be:
"The maximum duration of fertility (time interval between AI and last fertile egg) was 8.1 days in PB versus 6.4 days in CB"

The abbreviations they were using:
AI is artificial insemination (the study involved that rather than natural mating)
PB is purebred
CB is crossbred (they were crossing normal ducks with muscovies for that part of the experiment.)

Of course the results of that study may not be fully applicable to your situation. Maybe AI changes things. Maybe some individual females can retain sperm longer than the ones they studied. Maybe some individual males have sperm that lives longer. But it is the only piece of research I have turned up so far.

With chickens, if you switch roosters, eggs collected one week later will usually have chicks sired by the new rooster. Usually. There are cases of eggs collected 2 or 3 weeks after the switch that still produce chicks sired by the old rooster. There are even rare cases of eggs collected up to about 6 weeks after the change, still producing chicks sired by the old rooster. When the two roosters (or drakes) give different traits to their chicks, it is possible to sort out things like that. Otherwise, it is a bit of a guessing game.

How long after I switch drakes should I wait?

Are you able to tell a fertile egg from an infertile egg when you crack it open? If yes, you can try this:
Collect eggs sired by the first drake.

Remove the first drake, and have the female live with no drake at all.
Every day, crack open her egg to see if it is fertile (then cook the egg and use it.)
At some point, you will start finding infertile eggs. It should be safe to assume she has no more viable sperm from the old drake at that point.

Then put the second drake in the pen with the female, and keep checking the egg each day.

When you find a fertile egg, you can assume she is now laying fertile eggs with drake #2 as the sire. So you would not crack any more eggs after that, but would start collecting eggs to hatch.

 

[Tennessee Tranquility]

Brilliant! Thank you so much.

Yes, they are different breeds - wound up with Pekin, Silver Appleyard and Blue Swedish drakes.

 

[NatJ]

Yes, they are different breeds - wound up with Pekin, Silver Appleyard and Blue Swedish drakes.

I'm not good with duck genetics, so I can't immediately say whether you will be able to tell the ducklings apart by color or not.

@Pyxis if these drakes are crossed with the duck in the first post, would it be easy to recognize which ducklings are sired by which drake?

The first post says this about the female:

I only have one white duck hen laying now (she was TSC mixed lot, so not sure if Pekin or White Layer).

 

[Tennessee Tranquility]

I’ve read that 3 weeks is best for ducks, but in some cases they’ve been fertile longer.

As for Pekin or White Layer, Pekins have deep orange bills and can be 8+ lbs, whereas White Layers will have pale, pinkish bills and only get up to about 5 lbs. You could also post a picture.

This is the TSC hen that I'd like to know if she is a Pekin or White Layer. She lays a huge white egg every day but the 1st Sunday of the month! She was a year old at the end of February. If this photo doesn't show her well enough, I'll take another tomorrow. Thank you!

 

[KathiQuacks]

This is the TSC hen that I'd like to know if she is a Pekin or White Layer. She lays a huge white egg every day but the 1st Sunday of the month! She was a year old at the end of February. If this photo doesn't show her well enough, I'll take another tomorrow. Thank you!

I want to say she’s a Pekin. Seems hefty, and has that orange bill.

if these drakes are crossed with the duck in the first post, would it be easy to recognize which ducklings are sired by which drake?

Yes, you would be able to tell..

But it’s only plausible to have both drakes with the hen if @Tennessee Tranquility has many other hens that can be bred too, to keep the drakes from fighting / overmating. And even if so, duck hens have a drake they prefer to mate with and will resist mating from other drakes, meaning the eggs will likely be sired mostly / entirely by 1 drake anyway. Separation, I think, would be better.

 

[NatJ]

Yes, you would be able to tell..

But it’s only plausible to have both drakes with the hen if @Tennessee Tranquility has many other hens that can be bred too, to keep the drakes from fighting / overmating. And even if so, duck hens have a drake they prefer to mate with and will resist mating from other drakes, meaning the eggs will likely be sired mostly / entirely by 1 drake anyway. Separation, I think, would be better.

I was thinking only one drake with the female at a time, which matches what you are suggesting.

But if the ducklings from each drake look different, there is no need to wait after switching drakes, because you can already be sure of who is the father of each duckling.