Hello everyone, I am a new subscriber to BYC but have been using the website for over a year and you all have been an excellent source of help since I started raising chickens and ducks. This past week, a coyote dug it's way into our coop and killed 2 of our hens and 1 of our Pekin ducks before we were able to get rid of it. Since then, our remaining Pekin has laid only one egg. Both ducks were great layers and laid 2 eggs daily without fail until now. Is it possible that she is traumatized by the coyote and the loss of the other duck? Do you think she will start laying again? She has also stopped swimming in her pool that they loved to swim in daily and has been very quiet. Thanks for any advice you can give.
@shaelee wrote: "Since then, our remaining Pekin has laid only one egg." So you only have one single duck now? Might be stress or loneliness. Where are you located? Could be seasonal too.
I was thinking she might be lonely too. She still has the chickens that she was raised with for company but i'm sure it's not the same. Don't think it's seasonal. I live in central Florida and the weather is still in the upper 70's and 80's right now.
Poultry are ruled by length of daylight for layong as much as temperature. No doubf your days are shorter now. You can try a light on a timer to grf her day length back to normal. But it does sound like she's been thru a lot of trauma. It will probably fake a lot of time to trust her aurroindings again.
They do become very quite after such an attack this is normal as every thing else you described this is all part of it and good job on getting rid of the problem... And welcome to BYC now you have learned a valuable lesion and can now help others ....... gander007
