duck laying multiple eggs each day?

[pipit]

I have a mating pair of Buff Orpington ducks. They are just now about 5 months old. Yesterday, my husband brought in 3 eggs from their nest. I hadn't seen any the day before. This morning there are FIVE on the nest!

These are my first ducks. I have chickens and have had turkeys before. Is this possible? I guess it must be because there were none on it last night and five this morning! Does anyone else out there have ducks that lay more than one in a day?

 

[ranchhand]

Any chance someone/something else is laying in the nest? Being new to laying it is possible, but very unlikely. BO ducks are not even normally expected to lay even one daily. I think? it's like 200-220 eggs per year average for them? I might be wrong, so don't hold me to it!

 

[katharinad]

I wonder if your pair is a pair of two females and not a male/female combo. Are both quaking? Boys cannot quack, but they do have a raspy sore throat noise. Its in the noise level of us talking quietly. The girls on the other hand are like us talking loudly and even screaming. They get that loud.

 

[pipit]

PJ is definitely a drake. He has the dark head and markings of a Buff drake and a drake feather. Penny is definitely a female, smaller and the markings of a female. Penny quacks and PJ makes a more squeaky noise. I have witnessed them mating in our pond, PJ on top. They are the ONLY ducks we have. I have 19 chickens but they all lay colored eggs. Late yesterday afternoon we closed them up in their pen which they share with NO ONE. The chickens were shut up in their own pen. There were NO EGGS in the duck house when we shut them up for the night. This morning, my husband went in the pen to feed them and there were FIVE eggs on the nest! They all were the same color and size, off white. So, unless some other duck has been able to get in and lay eggs, which is 99.9% impossible, they all came from Penny.

 

[katharinad]

Something is not right that is for sure. Ducks also steal eggs from other birds, if they get broody or want more for some reason. Of course chicken eggs look different, so you would have noticed that. All I can think that her hormones may be off, because ducks only lay one egg per day. She just started to lay so it may swing into normal soon. BTW don't let her sit on these eggs. The eggs from the first 2 weeks are usually not good and tend to be infertile. That's because her hormones and other things have to get settled in. You are better off eating the eggs for now.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

That is wild!!
Unless you come up with some other explaination for all these eggs I think I would make sure that hen has plenty of oyster shell to eat free choice, and I also consider beefing up her protein with some cat chow too.

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Super duper bionic duck?

LOL

 

[srsmith69]

Is it just me or does anyone else think dear Hubby may be "laying" some of those eggs. I smell a prank. Smells a lot like rotten duck eggs

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
That was my thought as well.

 

[pipit]

I can assure you, I am NOT joking! PJ is most assuredly a male. He doesn't look anything like the female and has the distinctive curled drake feather. I will conjecture, as one person replied, that her hormones are screwy. The eggs are smaller than my chickens' eggs, but then they lay extra large to jumbos. Aside from the chickens, which all lay brown or green eggs, the only other birds that have been in their pen have been a few crows eating their food. We feed them Purina game bird chow and they free range during the day. My male cocker spaniel goes in there trolling for food, but apart from that, nothing else has been in there.