Duck laying eggs. HELP, new duck owner!

[kseeley18]

So I've recently adopted 8 new ducks, 7 of them are laying. The first night I had them I got 7 eggs, the following day 7 more then 5 then 4 then 5 then 3 and another 3. Can someone tell me why or what is going on with such inconsistency of the laying? They won't lay their eggs in their pen, they wait until I let them out every morning 3 of them have made nests under my lilac tree and they lay them under the tree once I let them out but it doesn't explain the other 4 ducks not laying. I've looked for hidden eggs as well. The layers I have are 1 pekin, 2 blue swedish, 2 black swedish, 1 cayuga, and 1 golden 300 hybrid.

 

[I Love Layers]

May be the weather or what you are feeding them. Sometimes mine would actually hold in their eggs until I let them out then go hide them..
My ducks layed around 4 am. So I always let them out around 6 to enusre I was getting all their eggs

 

[junebuggena]

Stress. The eggs laid when you first got them, where already ready to lay. As the stress of being in a new environment hit them, their laying systems shut down. Give them a few weeks, and they should all start laying again. However, it is getting close to the time of year when the annual molting starts. That may further delay laying. Leave them penned in longer so that they get used to laying where you want them to.

 

[kseeley18]

Stress. The eggs laid when you first got them, where already ready to lay. As the stress of being in a new environment hit them, their laying systems shut down. Give them a few weeks, and they should all start laying again. However, it is getting close to the time of year when the annual molting starts. That may further delay laying. Leave them penned in longer so that they get used to laying where you want them to.

thank you! I have noticed that my young ducks 12 weeks-ish have started molting their down feathers but I haven't noticed it with the year old adopted ducks.I leave them in their pen from about 8pm to 7am and leave their gate open all day so they can go in and out as they please. I assumed it was somewhat stress but otherwise they seem to be doing great they eat out of my hands and are pretty happy otherwise I was just unsure about the eggs. But again thank you so much!