Duck egg squat?

[Cat Water]

Do ducks do egg squats? How do you know if they are about to lay?

 

[Amiga]

The morning that Funf started making some strange noises (they were in the basement), I went down to investigate. Three a.m. What has her worked up? Rat in the cellar?

She was pacing, she was turning around, she would walk from one spot to the other, complaining. This went on for about ten minutes at least. Then she gently nosed Sieben off her nest. She turned around a few times, squatted ever so slightly, and out popped the egg.

This and one other time are the only times I have witnessed the egg laying. Usually mine lay between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. Sometimes as late as 7 a.m.

This doesn't seem to happen that often. Usually there is just some soft murmuring, or not much sound at all.

 

[Cat Water]

Ok, but can you tell before that? Thank you, though.

 

[Amiga]

Cat Water, I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes. I don't quite understand your question.

I watched the duck for, oh, twenty minutes while she was doing all this. Then a quick squat and out came the egg.

How far ahead are we talking?

 

[Cat Water]

I mean like with chickens, you reach out to pet them and they squat. Then a week later you get an egg. Is there anything like that with ducks? About a week? A couple days? Does that make sense? Sorry if I'm being unclear.

 

[donnavee]

I'm new to ducks and my BEIs and Call ducks just started laying last week. I had know warning and didn't know who was laying until I finally found one in the nest. I hadn't even set up any nests yet, she dug her own little nest in the run and lined it with some straw that she gathered up. I was hoping she might go broody, but she lost interest in the nest after a couple of days. None of my ducks squat like my chickens do.

 

[SycolinWoodsChickens]

We've only had ducks for 9 months but I've never seen nor heard of a duck squatting before they lay like chickens do. Our ducks were flirting with the males and lying flat in the water to get mounted way before they laid eggs. If I remember the behavior started at 12 weeks and we never got our first eggs until over 21 weeks.

Our chickens laid eggs first then started squatting for us but that was all within about 2 weeks. Darn, backwards chickens never heard of squat THEN lay.

 

[gofasterstripe]

So if I go out tomorrow and touch my ducks that are 23 weeks old and not layed an egg yet.. they will lay me an egg next week

cool

 

[duckking]

I don't know if it depends on the type of duck, but I have 3 Mallard hens and 1 Rouen hen that are almost 22 weeks and they are not laying yet either. I was told that they later than chickens and should not be surprised if it's 6-7 months before they start to lay. I have a Rouen Drake as well, and the girls want nothing to do with him at this point. He's not aggressive at all, so he doesn't seem to be hassling them.