Deformed Duck Egg

[SometimesCraftr]

I am new to ducks, and recently helped an acquaintance out and took in their two ducks, as they are being moved overseas. I have Runners, but they don't begin laying until next month, and the two I received from her were laying when they arrived. She said she got them in February, so they have been laying a little while. Yesterday the Pekin didn't lay an egg and today this egg was in the box. She is also in with her buddy a Khaki Campbell, and while she has had two days in the last few weeks we've had her where she hasn't laid an egg, her egg this morning was there and just fine. The photo with two eggs is comparing the Pekin's regular egg (from two days ago) to today's abnormal egg.

Our birds free-range during the day and at dinner time I give them feed. I have a male, and a goose that wont lay until next spring, so I try to get them to finish off the crumbles we have, but of course they go for the layer pellets I put out for the girls. Since i'm new to ducks, and laying ducks, I want to be sure i'm not feeding them too little of the layer pellets. I have the Storey Guide to Raising Ducks, and I did find the daily feed recommendations in there, however they free-range during the day so I'm not sure if they are getting enough in the evening. They seem to eat their fill and usually have a little left over, so I figure we must be doing okay. The feed we are currently feeding them is Purina Layena.

I did do a search of the boards before posting, but wasn't finding anything related to ducks, and just a few posts on deformed chicken eggs. I'm sure the flaw is in my searching, because I can't imagine there aren't many new bird owners like me with this problem. I just want to be sure i'm not missing something. Thanks!

 

[Amiga]

The occasional odd egg is no big worry, but it looks like the shell is thin on that one, and while it could be a number of things, it could be a lack of calcium, or even a lack of enough of a balanced diet.

When ducks forage, it is impossible, I think, to know if they are getting a balanced diet. At the same time, I think foraging is a really, really good thing for ducks. My solution is to let the ducks have access to layer ration at any time they wish when they are in the pen. And due to our location, they spend most of their time either in the night pen or the day pen. But on our best days, they spend several hours in the gardens, foraging for little critters and plant snacks.

Do they have free choice oyster shell?

 

[SometimesCraftr]

I don't have a pen for the birds, they just free range the fenced area of our property, which is about 1/2 an acre or so. We are fortunate to not have problems with daytime predators here. They just go into secure duck houses at night. They have lots of ground to cover and we have all sorts of bug and critters. They are especially fond of hunting for the field mice - yum. I have thought about leaving layer ration out for them all day, but the main purpose of the ducks is to eat all the slugs and bugs we have here. They are doing a great job. If food is out, they want to eat that and i'd like them to fill up on critters first. That being said, eggs are secondary, but I do want to be sure i'm giving my girls what they need. At this point I do not have oyster shells out because their food has the calcium added to it and I didn't want to over do it. But I can certainly leave that out. I have the male duck and goose that won't lay until next year, so i'm hesitant to leave out the layer feed all day as that is not the right food for them...or from others experience, is it fine since they do free range so much of the day...?

 

[Amiga]

Each flock is different, but I want to share with you that my Runners, even though from day one have had food 24/7 (with a four week exception), have decimated the slug population here. It is difficult to find a slug, and the Runners also enjoy their layer feed and other snacks.

Free choice oyster shell addresses the concern about ducks taking in too much calcium.

 

[jducour]

Our housing situation sounds nearly identical. I have 6 ducks that forage on almost 1/2 acre, and they are laying beautifully. I also have them eating Purina Layena, and at this time I am not supplementing with oyster shells. I have it on hand if needed, but I wanted to wait until I saw signs they need it. They have free access to our grass, woodchips, garden and pond for food, but they also have food available 24/7 in their house. I always leave their house open, and they are free to go and grab a bite if they want. I will see the girls go in every once in a while and grab a couple bites of food, but then they are right out foraging after. I have absolutely no snails or slugs to be found, and before I had ducks I could find hundreds. It seems they prefer to eat critters, but if they are still hungry, they will grab a bite. My 6 ducks only eat about 50 lbs of feed a month, and they have free access to it. I would say 90% of the food is eaten after I put them in at night. My 4 ducks have laid an egg each for the last 5-6 weeks, only 2 or 3 days of that time did we only get 3 eggs. Every egg has been perfect, not a thin shell or odd shape. I would think that if the food is available, but not in plain sight (they have to go inside their house to get it) they will only eat it if they feel they need to.

 

[jducour]

Here is what my girls gave us in the last 6 days. I love this part of owning ducks! Yummy!

 

[SometimesCraftr]

jducour - I will have to figure out a situation for putting their food out for them. Their housing is not set up for food and water when they are away for the night. The two that are laying are in a dog kennel at the moment, as the goose wont let them sleep with her and "her" Runners at night, so they do have water available to them right now but as of next week they will be in a duck house and it wont be set up to have water in there with them either, and I know this can affect things when it comes to laying eggs. However, the Pekin does have water now and still had the misshapen egg. I think i've seen a few mentioned of a nippled water system for ducks, and i'm going to look into that more. I just don't want a huge mess in their house from water. I'm going to look for an out of the way area to put the layer feed for now, I think that is a great suggestion. If it's not right where they like to hangout all day then they will be less likely to fill up on that.



This is the duck house, it butts up to the fence and goes into the barnyard with the sheep. The other one we're building will go next to it. I might have to set up feeders over here, as they don't wander over here often. It will be easy for me to feed them and the sheep at the same time.

As an aside, I did break open the egg and it was almost all yoke and just a tiny bit of white. The shell was nice and hard, as they usually are, and a pain in the butt to get broken open. The yoke was a beautiful, deep yellow and huge!

 

[jducour]

I have just a quick minute, I will read all of your post when I have more time. I use a nipple system at night, and I wouldn't do it any other way. Here is my setup.

 

[SometimesCraftr]

Oh perfect! That's what I was thinking I saw at some point. I would like to set something like that up for them since the nights are starting to get longer for us here. Since they go in earlier, that's more time without water as it stands now (and no food as well, obviously).