Ducks are not laying and have not for the whole summer, isn't this strange?

[gaitngirl]

Well out of 17 hens[chicken] I got 5 eggs today and out of 12 ducks I got 0 eggs today, any one else want to give the count. My molters are few so I have no idea what's going on unless again the long season has everyone going dormant early, also my lil over year old Scovy drake's carnuckles are already faded to pinkish/orange compared to the deep red they were a month ago. My other 2 are still pretty red.

Out of my lot of 25 chicken hens, I got 4 eggs. One of my 16 week old pullets that's in the quarantine pen laid a beautiful dark chocolate colored egg! I was bad and bought 6 more today (4 pullets, 2 hens - EEs and mutt Marans) and one laid an egg on the hour drive home, lol. Ducks? Zip. I'm sure they are laying somewhere - I just can't find 'somewhere'. My Scovies caruncles are still pretty red, too. I've gotten up early and watched the ducks from the windows in the house to try to figure out where the heck their eggs are. The Rouen hens have been checking out real estate everywhere. The Muscovies normally would lay in the chicken coop but I've got it closed up right now to keep the chickens in. I have 3 adult Scovy hens that should be laying but aren't. My fourth hen is still mothering all of her 2 + month old babies (that are bigger than she is now!!!). If I don't get more eggs tomorrow, I'm going to go ahead with the worming . . . I should probably do the ducks, too. I do have a couple of (chicken) hens that have pinkish/floppy combs but they all look healthy. I gave the coop a thorough cleaning out and put all new bedding/shavings in the nest boxes. My dad is going to come over and help me finish the run this weekend hopefully so I can at least let them out into that area. He will only be able to supervise and do little things due to his shoulder surgery but even his company is a help, lol.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Hey Girl! So glad you joined us over here on the Duck Side! LOL

Today I collected 2 eggs from 3 ladies. I have one duck that is mothering her 2 wk olds and she is in full blown molt. Looks super raggedy. So I suppose its best she concentrates on growing her feathers back instead of giving me eggs.

 

[gaitngirl]

Hey Girl! So glad you joined us over here on the Duck Side! LOL

Today I collected 2 eggs from 3 ladies. I have one duck that is mothering her 2 wk olds and she is in full blown molt. Looks super raggedy. So I suppose its best she concentrates on growing her feathers back instead of giving me eggs.

May the Ducks be with you, lol. Or something like that . . .

I'm hoping my Scovy girls will be good broodies next spring. I'm torn on whether or not to let them sit their own eggs or not - I'm having a hard time parting with the batch that I have now, but with this many boys I have to. I don't think they are hiding their nests because they would most likely be brooding them if they had eggs somewhere. One of them sat on a fake egg and a couple of Pekin eggs for close to 2 months. My resident egg breaker Isa Brown (who will probably end up in the soup pot soon) finally got the eggs. But that Scovy mama fought like crazy to save them. She barely left the nest except to eat and drink.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Zero eggs here today.

 

[gaitngirl]

No duck eggs again today here, either. I've gotten 3 chicken eggs so far. Most of my girls have switched to laying later in the day for some reason. I don't want to start turning a light on in the morning yet, though.

 

[Learningstill]

It must be the weather, if so many are experiencing this problem.

I do not like spending the money for feed if they are not producing. We are trying to come up with other ways to make my daughters hobby self-sustaining. Any ideas?

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: My first idea is that all you duck enthusiasts start your own thread with a title that will bring your fellow duck owners to you; this thread seems to have served its purpose but you guys look like you could do with a dedicated waterfowl thread, like so many other dedicated threads.

My second idea, specifically to LearningStill, is that you try what I've done and obtain daughters from these ducks as soon as they want to breed. These daughters ought to tide you through on eggs when their mothers are having their seasonal break, and vice versa.

I do this with my chickens, making sure I have chickens hatched early in the year and later in the year, because when the mothers want to take a break and moult or brood, the daughters are at point of lay. When the daughters want to take a break, moult, brood, etc, the mothers have moulted, raised a clutch, are back to laying again. The daughters have a different timing for their seasonal break than their mothers, which is helped I'm sure by the relatively mild winter temperatures around here. The mother's and daughter's returns to laying coincide to overlap the other's downtime, in a precise and neat pattern. I have never kept ducks though so have no idea if this is as doable with them but I suspect it would most likely be.

Since I breed mongrels I have a steady production of eggs throughout every season without overtaxing any female, and these hens are far more feed efficient than a 'high production' hen who runs herself ragged and dies young. I believe the eggs from these commercial layers aren't as nutritious because the hen never makes ends meet, so to speak, nutritionally --- it's either her health or the bottom line, and that style of breed is developed to favor the bottom line over health. Their eggs are watery, their feathers are weak, their flesh is dry and rank.... And I can feed two mongrels on the same amount of food, who won't stop laying at two years, and who enjoy prime health because their bodies are never overtaxed. High production is a false economy in my opinion.

My mongrels are still laying regularly and well into old age, never moult themselves bare, and don't often have any health issues unlike the high production commercial layers. Anyway... Enough about my reasons for preference of mongrels over hi-production hens... Best wishes with finding your 'interim solution' for laying breaks.

 

[Learningstill]

My first idea is that all you duck enthusiasts start your own thread with a title that will bring your fellow duck owners to you; this thread seems to have served its purpose but you guys look like you could do with a dedicated waterfowl thread, like so many other dedicated threads.

My second idea, specifically to LearningStill, is that you try what I've done and obtain daughters from these ducks as soon as they want to breed. These daughters ought to tide you through on eggs when their mothers are having their seasonal break, and vice versa.

I do this with my chickens, making sure I have chickens hatched early in the year and later in the year, because when the mothers want to take a break and moult or brood, the daughters are at point of lay. When the daughters want to take a break, moult, brood, etc, the mothers have moulted, raised a clutch, are back to laying again. The daughters have a different timing for their seasonal break than their mothers, which is helped I'm sure by the relatively mild winter temperatures around here. The mother's and daughter's returns to laying coincide to overlap the other's downtime, in a precise and neat pattern. I have never kept ducks though so have no idea if this is as doable with them but I suspect it would most likely be.   

Since I breed mongrels I have a steady production of eggs throughout every season without overtaxing any female, and these hens are far more feed efficient than a 'high production' hen who runs herself ragged and dies young. I believe the eggs from these commercial layers aren't as nutritious because the hen never makes ends meet, so to speak, nutritionally --- it's either her health or the bottom line, and that style of breed is developed to favor the bottom line over health. Their eggs are watery, their feathers are weak, their flesh is dry and rank.... And I can feed two mongrels on the same amount of food, who won't stop laying at two years, and who enjoy prime health because their bodies are never overtaxed. High production is a false economy in my opinion.

My mongrels are still laying regularly and well into old age, never moult themselves bare, and don't often have any health issues unlike the high production commercial layers. Anyway... Enough about my reasons for preference of mongrels over hi-production hens... Best wishes with finding your 'interim solution' for laying breaks.

Thanks for the idea. We have just gotten started with the breeding this year, and we ended up with more drakes than ducks
We chose ducks, because my daughter is scared of chickens. She is getting used to the chickens now, but still swears by her ducks. Which is fine, they are a hoot to watch.
Gosh, I hope our mixes will be better than their purebred parents. Time will tell...

Thank you for responding.

 

[chooks4life]

Ah, yeah, that is the issue with young parents... Mostly male offspring results, and this appears to be the case regardless of species in pretty much all livestock.

It is also a classic sign of iodine deficiency and can also be a symptom of other problems, whether environmental or dietary. But even when everything is as good as it can be, they produce a 'throw away' generation (male) as either an anti weak genetic propagation or over-breeding prevention mechanism, I believe. Females would breed if they survived, but in general males must work hard to secure breeding rights. A weaker, almost all male generation stands no chance against prime latter generations of males from the same parents, which are better suited to continue the family line. Even if these weaker males and females did breed their offspring would be weaker yet, and rather quickly they'd fade from the gene-pool.

This all begs the question of why weaker genes are present at early and late stages. I have no concrete idea of that, yet. I believe it's got a lot to do with the physical state of the parent when very young or very old --- non prime in both cases --- since the parent's physical state during breeding influences the offspring deeply.

Males in general, especially wild males, are depicted as senseless mating machines, but in fact are picky and know a prime female when they see her; they will risk their lives to try to secure her as a mate. With many domestic animals this mate-picking instinct has been retarded or obliterated. But many will quickly regain it if allowed the environment and opportunity to do so. Sometimes you'll get a sub par male who will insist on trying to breed with a female above his ranking genetically. Sometimes this will lead to him killing her as she will refuse to the death in many cases. Sometimes the opposite will occur with a male attacking a female who is sub par but still tries to breed with him. In both cases, since the male is the aggressor, I cull him. If he doesn't want to mate, he doesn't have to; violence is both unnecessary and unacceptable to me. A prime male may drive a sub par female out of his group but that's all I'll allow.

In a more natural set up in domesticity the same patterns are played out as are in the wild --- the best males and females will each select their best match (or matches) and will refuse to breed with anything 'below' them. A male with good genetics and instincts refuses sub-par hens, and a female with good genetics and instincts refuses sub-par roosters. Many of my best hens have had their eye on multiple males and will devote a breeding season to each in turn. I don't believe in spending any animal's entire breeding life on one mate.

I have found the 'love match' to always yield inexplicably better offspring than what I thought were the best matches, which I pushed the animals into despite their choices. When the 'love match' occurs between two sub par animals which I was not going to breed, I will then allow them to breed to see what the results will be. Always better than either parent. So I assume this is weaker genetic stock's attempt to recover from whatever led to them being weaker... When two animals that are a good match meet up they are determined to breed. This occurs more often between prime animals since sub par ones often seem pretty blase about procreating in comparison. But not always, and when it happens the offspring are an improvement. The more 'in love' the animals are, the better their genetic match, in my experience.

I deliberately breed my youngest hens and roosters to get an almost all-male 'crop' of 'edibles'. It's the offspring they produce in their second year at the earliest which will be the breeders, but the first year offspring will be noticeably weakly and worse in every way.

I have never yet seen young parents produce any male or female worth breeding. Somehow, old or young parents do not produce the best offspring. Middle aged parents do. I use the sub par hens for eggs before eating them, or perhaps keeping them or selling them on if they've made pets of themselves or have proven useful foster mothers. The next generation or so from the same parents will produce males and females in equal amounts, or leaning towards female predominance, and these will include some of breeding quality. Those I choose not to breed from among these generations will still be quality enough to sell on if I choose not to eat them.

Just my experience with chickens. May not apply to ducks but it applies to sheep, horses, cattle, dogs, cats, etc, in varying degrees, so it may as well apply in some form to ducks. Best wishes.

 

[Learningstill]

Wow, thanks for all the info.

Our ducks were 1 and 2 years of age, but have never hatched any babies until this spring. Would this still apply because it was their first time being broody?

One of the ducks lost most of her babies. We were camping at fair and were afraid of them running out of water during the night or day and left a wide about two inch bowl and six drowned then we went away on business for a whole day and two more died, we think they were beat up. My daughter was heart broken, but we learned to prevent harm to the rest. We got 1 lucky little girl. Her name is Vanilla Bean. Then our other duck hatched two ducks and four drakes. She too lost some babies. One drowned at an older age, we think it somehow could not get out. Then she lost some unmatched babies, due to our pig moving her nest and eggs were stepped on. So sad for our first time. I was not planning to do this again, but after reading the breeding rotation we may try again.