Ducks Decreased Egg Laying : Season? Molting? Mating?

[Valley of Drakes]

I know there are a ton of posts about decreased egg laying. Thanks for your time.

It's late Feb in Willamette Valley Oregon with warm weather 40s-60s. Collection of and mixed breeds; 12 female ducks, of which 7 are almost a year and 5 are 'a few' years old; 6 adult drakes, 3 of which are were NOT 'active' last summer but just started mounting this week. I haven't seen the 3 others mount this spring yet, but they were definitely active last summer and fall.

Through the winter I was getting about half production of eggs at about 2-3 a day, (compared to late summer of 6-7 per day), and saw a slight increase of egg production in early Feb. with more daylight at about 3-4 a day, but now in Late Feb it has slowed to 1 a day with more every few days.

Is it the mating/stress? Are they about to molt? Is this the time ducks molt for 'early spring?' This is my first spring with adult laying ducks. (I'm also originally from Alaska, so 'early spring ' is very confusing to me. ...as is any kind of green grass in February like we have here, now.)

They have an enclosed nightime netted area and I can't find anywhere that they are laying on the side (which I have previously found so I know where to look.) No ducks are missing or presumably brooding. They are enclosed just before dark and released at around 9-9:30am in daily light.

This mostly matters for me because we sell the eggs to pay for the ducks' feed. I would like to know if this is normal or a problem so I can plan what to expect inorder to budget their feed costs.

Thanks for your help.
This site has been helpful to me as an observer, but this is my first post.

-Vanessa
Valley of Drakes Farm

 

[KathiQuacks]

What breeds are your ducks exactly? You say only 3 of your drakes are mounting now, but in the future, a 1:2 ratio like that will almost certainly be detrimental to your hens. I’d highly recommend rehoming at least 2 or 3 of your drakes, or getting more hens, if possible.

I’m not an expert by any means, so anyone else feel free to correct me / add more info, but this is everything I’ve picked up about egg production.

The top causes of decreased / poor egg production are:

Broodiness
Although, you say your hens are not broody.

Age
This is both for hens being too old and too young. Your younger hens should be old enough, but you say your older hens are “a few” years old? If you’ve never seen them lay, it’s possible they’re too old to lay anymore.

Stress
There’s many factors that could cause stress - sudden environmental changes, a predator attack, poor nutrition, over-mating (I don’t think mating itself would decrease egg production), changes in flock dynamic, etc. You’ll have to decide if there’s something that could’ve stressed your ducks out or not.

Molting
Hens will not lay / lay less frequently when molting. Molting happens rather quick, but I suppose you could check for it by looking to see if your drakes are molting (splotchy feathers, no drake feather), checking your bird’s wings especially to see if their feathers are small and just growing in, see if there’s an increased amount of feathers around the coop / property, etc. Personally, my ducks do both of their molts in Summer / Fall, but I’ve heard other ducks will do Summer / Winter, Fall / Spring, etc.

Calcium deficiency
Are you providing your hens with adequate calcium? That would be in the form of something like egg shells, oyster shells, etc., preferably on the side of their feed. Drakes, ideally, should not be eating excess calcium or layer feed.

Vitamin D deficiency
This can happen with poor nutrition, your ducks not getting out in the sun enough, on rainy days, or simply during winter when the daylight decreases. If you suspect it’s Vitamin D, many people recommend to give each of your ducks one Calcium Citrate + D3 tablet every day for 1 - 2 weeks and see if there’s any improvement.

There are other causes of course, but those are the main ones that I know. May you figure out the cause, or may your hens start laying normally again.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I suspect you will find a new hidden nest outside soon. My girls get more sneaky in the spring. If not, they may be molting. Or, as previously mentioned, you may have too many drakes and the girls are stressed and not laying. My money is on a hidden nest though.

 

[Valley of Drakes]

What breeds are your ducks exactly? You say only 3 of your drakes are mounting now, but in the future, a 1:2 ratio like that will almost certainly be detrimental to your hens. I’d highly recommend rehoming at least 2 or 3 of your drakes, or getting more hens, if possible.

I’m not an expert by any means, so anyone else feel free to correct me / add more info, but this is everything I’ve picked up about egg production.

The top causes of decreased / poor egg production are:

Broodiness
Although, you say your hens are not broody.

Age
This is both for hens being too old and too young. Your younger hens should be old enough, but you say your older hens are “a few” years old? If you’ve never seen them lay, it’s possible they’re too old to lay anymore.

Stress
There’s many factors that could cause stress - sudden environmental changes, a predator attack, poor nutrition, over-mating (I don’t think mating itself would decrease egg production), changes in flock dynamic, etc. You’ll have to decide if there’s something that could’ve stressed your ducks out or not.

Molting
Hens will not lay / lay less frequently when molting. Molting happens rather quick, but I suppose you could check for it by looking to see if your drakes are molting (splotchy feathers, no drake feather), checking your bird’s wings especially to see if their feathers are small and just growing in, see if there’s an increased amount of feathers around the coop / property, etc. Personally, my ducks do both of their molts in Summer / Fall, but I’ve heard other ducks will do Summer / Winter, Fall / Spring, etc.

Calcium deficiency
Are you providing your hens with adequate calcium? That would be in the form of something like egg shells, oyster shells, etc., preferably on the side of their feed. Drakes, ideally, should not be eating excess calcium or layer feed.

Vitamin D deficiency
This can happen with poor nutrition, your ducks not getting out in the sun enough, on rainy days, or simply during winter when the daylight decreases. If you suspect it’s Vitamin D, many people recommend to give each of your ducks one Calcium Citrate + D3 tablet every day for 1 - 2 weeks and see if there’s any improvement.

There are other causes of course, but those are the main ones that I know. May you figure out the cause, or may your hens start laying normally again.

Thanks for your reply KathiQuacks.

I meant to share about the ratio. We started with a few drakes, raised females, then adopted a flock that included the other 3 drakes. The only reason we pardoned all of the original drakes was thd fact that we never saw them mount, but that may need to change. I'm watching that closely. I am searching for more layers though, so that would be an alternative solution, but it's still a lot of Drakes if they are all active.

Female Breeds and ages:
3 khaki Campbells, 2 silver apple yards, 1 cayuga: all just about 1 year
1 rouen/swedish : one year in June
2 rowens : age unknown
1 ancuna : age unknown was def laying last summer
1 Mottled cayuga : age unknown
1 blue swedish : age unknown

Drakes: 3 silver appleyards : year and a half. Did go through an obvious molt last fall and turned more silver, have grown in their green head feathers over the winter again.
2 blue swedish: age unknown but active mounters last summer
1 rowen: age unknown but active mounter last summer (half blind, not that it matters).

BROODY: I've never had a duck (or chicken) go broody, so I'm not sure what to look for, but I count them everyday and night and Noone is missing/hiding. Our location is a wide open field, so it would be hard to hide or hide a nest, though I did go out looking for a possible buried clutch somewhere just in case. Nothing that I could find.

Mating: just a couple mountings observed from the three apple yards, haven't seen the other active yet. Will spend more time in the yard starting Monday and look for mating activity.

Molting: the drakes are not shedding their green heads. I have been through one molting season and recall all the excess feathers in the yard. I don't see that right now, but wondered if they might be coming into that. Sounds like it's not the time you usually have molting. This is my first over-winter with mature birds, so not sure what to expect.

Weather: we did have some cloudy weeks, but they still layed well. Now it's been sunny for a while.

Feed: they get an all flock mix. They have oyster shell on the side. I think I'll offer a waterer with electrolytes on the side (in addition to an auto fill waterer and pond accesses), and I think I'll mix in some yeast for a boost this week.

Changes: we move their housing weekly to fresh ground. I know this (or a food change) can affect their laying, but the drop seemed to come before the current move.
No new flock members or losses in the last month+.

My son things they are just timed to lay odd days. If they each lay every few days maybe we just had a few days that were all their 'off' days and we'll get more eggs every few days. Makes sense, but we had been getting 24 eggs a week and last week it was only 19 total.

 

[Valley of Drakes]

What breeds are your ducks exactly? You say only 3 of your drakes are mounting now, but in the future, a 1:2 ratio like that will almost certainly be detrimental to your hens. I’d highly recommend rehoming at least 2 or 3 of your drakes, or getting more hens, if possible.

I’m not an expert by any means, so anyone else feel free to correct me / add more info, but this is everything I’ve picked up about egg production.

The top causes of decreased / poor egg production are:

Broodiness
Although, you say your hens are not broody.

Age
This is both for hens being too old and too young. Your younger hens should be old enough, but you say your older hens are “a few” years old? If you’ve never seen them lay, it’s possible they’re too old to lay anymore.

Stress
There’s many factors that could cause stress - sudden environmental changes, a predator attack, poor nutrition, over-mating (I don’t think mating itself would decrease egg production), changes in flock dynamic, etc. You’ll have to decide if there’s something that could’ve stressed your ducks out or not.

Molting
Hens will not lay / lay less frequently when molting. Molting happens rather quick, but I suppose you could check for it by looking to see if your drakes are molting (splotchy feathers, no drake feather), checking your bird’s wings especially to see if their feathers are small and just growing in, see if there’s an increased amount of feathers around the coop / property, etc. Personally, my ducks do both of their molts in Summer / Fall, but I’ve heard other ducks will do Summer / Winter, Fall / Spring, etc.

Calcium deficiency
Are you providing your hens with adequate calcium? That would be in the form of something like egg shells, oyster shells, etc., preferably on the side of their feed. Drakes, ideally, should not be eating excess calcium or layer feed.

Vitamin D deficiency
This can happen with poor nutrition, your ducks not getting out in the sun enough, on rainy days, or simply during winter when the daylight decreases. If you suspect it’s Vitamin D, many people recommend to give each of your ducks one Calcium Citrate + D3 tablet every day for 1 - 2 weeks and see if there’s any improvement.

There are other causes of course, but those are the main ones that I know. May you figure out the cause, or may your hens start laying normally again.

I know there are a ton of posts about decreased egg laying. Thanks for your time.

It's late Feb in Willamette Valley Oregon with warm weather 40s-60s. Collection of and mixed breeds; 12 female ducks, of which 7 are almost a year and 5 are 'a few' years old; 6 adult drakes, 3 of which are were NOT 'active' last summer but just started mounting this week. I haven't seen the 3 others mount this spring yet, but they were definitely active last summer and fall.

Through the winter I was getting about half production of eggs at about 2-3 a day, (compared to late summer of 6-7 per day), and saw a slight increase of egg production in early Feb. with more daylight at about 3-4 a day, but now in Late Feb it has slowed to 1 a day with more every few days.

Is it the mating/stress? Are they about to molt? Is this the time ducks molt for 'early spring?' This is my first spring with adult laying ducks. (I'm also originally from Alaska, so 'early spring ' is very confusing to me. ...as is any kind of green grass in February like we have here, now.)

They have an enclosed nightime netted area and I can't find anywhere that they are laying on the side (which I have previously found so I know where to look.) No ducks are missing or presumably brooding. They are enclosed just before dark and released at around 9-9:30am in daily light.

This mostly matters for me because we sell the eggs to pay for the ducks' feed. I would like to know if this is normal or a problem so I can plan what to expect inorder to budget their feed costs.

Thanks for your help.
This site has been helpful to me as an observer, but this is my first post.

-Vanessa
Valley of Drakes Farm

New notes and a possible cause:

Today I got three eggs (about average) but they were all layed in the open yard of the enclosure. I think it's their nesting options!
Last summer I had observed a preference for a tight hidden spot behind my nesting box option, so I simplified it and offered a propped board. With every weekly move they made a nest behind a prefered board all summer, no matter what side it was on within the dome house. (I thought maybe they were preferring the sunny east side.)
Later I reintroduced the half kennel/large dog carried option and found them making a nest inside and laying there instead, so I removed the tilted board option. Next I added a second half kennel with a wooden floor option, both with straw, and NOONE liked the wooden board, (there are a few chickens laying in the same nest,) but they still have a nice round ducky nest inside the other dirt floor over turned kennel. ....except only chickens are laying in it this week.

I'm adding back the tilted board option and removing the wood floored second kennel option. We'll see what the next couple days bring.

[I'm trying to find nesting situations they like the best that are also easy to move. Im going to expand operations and will need to have 5 nest boxes and a more easily moveable duck enclosure.]

Side note: I did have one soft egg shell in the yard. No super common, but not entirely unusual. Once a month or so, that I find.

 

[KathiQuacks]

Thanks for your reply KathiQuacks.

I meant to share about the ratio. We started with a few drakes, raised females, then adopted a flock that included the other 3 drakes. The only reason we pardoned all of the original drakes was thd fact that we never saw them mount, but that may need to change. I'm watching that closely. I am searching for more layers though, so that would be an alternative solution, but it's still a lot of Drakes if they are all active.

The mounting will change, especially with spring and summer coming ‘round. Personally, I’d recommend 1 drake to every 4 to 5 hens, but some people can get away with less hens. It really just depends on the temperaments of your drakes.

Drakes: 3 silver appleyards : year and a half. Did go through an obvious molt last fall and turned more silver, have grown in their green head feathers over the winter again.

Molting: the drakes are not shedding their green heads. I have been through one molting season and recall all the excess feathers in the yard. I don't see that right now, but wondered if they might be coming into that. Sounds like it's not the time you usually have molting. This is my first over-winter with mature birds, so not sure what to expect.

Sounds like your drakes have a Fall / Winter molt schedule, and it’s possible your hens are the same way. Hens are harder to notice molting in visually, as their plumage color does not change like the drakes do. Your drakes will keep those green heads until Summer / Fall comes again.

2 rowens : age unknown
1 ancuna : age unknown was def laying last summer
1 Mottled cayuga : age unknown
1 blue swedish : age unknown

I haven’t had a hen be old enough to stop laying yet. The eldest hen I’ve ever had was 5 years old, and she still laid nice eggs every day. I’ve read that most hens will stop laying when they’re between 7 - 9 years old.

BROODY: I've never had a duck (or chicken) go broody, so I'm not sure what to look for, but I count them everyday and night and Noone is missing/hiding. Our location is a wide open field, so it would be hard to hide or hide a nest, though I did go out looking for a possible buried clutch somewhere just in case. Nothing that I could find.

A broody hen will build and be completely dedicated to her nest - she’ll sit on the nest for ~23 hours a day, only coming off for 1 hour to eat, drink, bathe, and poop. She’ll probably puff up real big, hiss, and bite if you try to come near her and her eggs. Broody hens off the nest are generally louder, puffier, and will complain a lot lol.
Also, it’s worth noting that nest building ≠ broodiness - sometimes they just build the nest to build it.

Feed: they get an all flock mix. They have oyster shell on the side. I think I'll offer a waterer with electrolytes on the side (in addition to an auto fill waterer and pond accesses), and I think I'll mix in some yeast for a boost this week.

That sounds okay to me.. I might take a few days to watch your hens whenever they’re in the coop, or whenever you go to feed them, and make note of who’s actually eating the oyster shell. Hens are very good at knowing how much calcium they need, so if they’re not laying, they more than likely won’t touch the oyster shell.

Changes: we move their housing weekly to fresh ground. I know this (or a food change) can affect their laying, but the drop seemed to come before the current move.
No new flock members or losses in the last month+.

There’s many other people on here that do the same thing with moving the housing. I’m not sure if that would affect laying or not, as I personally don’t move my housing.

My son things they are just timed to lay odd days. If they each lay every few days maybe we just had a few days that were all their 'off' days and we'll get more eggs every few days. Makes sense, but we had been getting 24 eggs a week and last week it was only 19 total.

Generally, ducks will lay once a day. Some ducks are slower and will do every other day, some twice a day. It’s a little odd that everyone is only laying every few days.

New notes and a possible cause:

Today I got three eggs (about average) but they were all layed in the open yard of the enclosure. I think it's their nesting options!
Last summer I had observed a preference for a tight hidden spot behind my nesting box option, so I simplified it and offered a propped board. With every weekly move they made a nest behind a prefered board all summer, no matter what side it was on within the dome house. (I thought maybe they were preferring the sunny east side.)
Later I reintroduced the half kennel/large dog carried option and found them making a nest inside and laying there instead, so I removed the tilted board option. Next I added a second half kennel with a wooden floor option, both with straw, and NOONE liked the wooden board, (there are a few chickens laying in the same nest,) but they still have a nice round ducky nest inside the other dirt floor over turned kennel. ....except only chickens are laying in it this week.

I'm adding back the tilted board option and removing the wood floored second kennel option. We'll see what the next couple days bring.

[I'm trying to find nesting situations they like the best that are also easy to move. Im going to expand operations and will need to have 5 nest boxes and a more easily moveable duck enclosure.]

I’m not sure. My ducks have been observed laying wherever, even with good nesting options - I’ve found way too many eggs underwater

The dog kennel nesting spot is good, that’s what I have for my ducks. I have the kennel covered on all sides (except the door), so it’s extra dark and warm, and a whole lot of hay lining the floor.

Side note: I did have one soft egg shell in the yard. No super common, but not entirely unusual. Once a month or so, that I find.

Yeah, that’s normal for new layers. They should work out any glitches like that soon.

If it were me, I’d spruce up their nesting spots (like you’re planning to) to make them more comfortable, and to be honest, I might just wait a little longer and see if there’s any changes.

I was very nervous about my current two hens - at 9 / 10 months old, both still had weird egg-laying habits. One laid in a nest, but had inconsistent egg sizes. The other would only lay soft-shelled eggs in the afternoon, in the middle of the yard, and then for a couple weeks, she stopped laying all together. Now, just a few months later at a year old, they’re both laying perfectly normal eggs, every day, in the morning, in a nest.

If you don’t want to wait, or are still concerned after waiting, I don’t think it’d hurt to try the D3 tablets, and see if they make any difference after a week or two.

 

[Yardmom]

Ducks and chickens do not usually lay all year long. The eggs you have been getting through the winter are most likely from your First year layers.
The older hens should start laying any day now with the increased light, but you never know when the young ones will take a break after laying in the winter. My chickens are in full swing for laying with the current light (NW PA). Only a few of my ducks have started with the current day light hours. My Duck hens are mixed ages up to 5 years with later summer hatches for the ones under a year.
I am one that keep almost as many drakes as duck hens. I find that ducks raised in this manner tend to pair off and fight less once they have found their pair (or established group). I keep over 2 dozen birds this way. They are free range during the day and have a larger fenced area for night.
Good luck with getting your ducks to lay in nests. The later it gets into the laying season the more likely my duck hens are to look for a good nest to place their egg. A few never do. Just one of those instincts that have gotten a little off in ducks with being domesticated.

 

[Valley of Drakes]

The mounting will change, especially with spring and summer coming ‘round. Personally, I’d recommend 1 drake to every 4 to 5 hens, but some people can get away with less hens. It really just depends on the temperaments of your drakes.



Sounds like your drakes have a Fall / Winter molt schedule, and it’s possible your hens are the same way. Hens are harder to notice molting in visually, as their plumage color does not change like the drakes do. Your drakes will keep those green heads until Summer / Fall comes again.


I haven’t had a hen be old enough to stop laying yet. The eldest hen I’ve ever had was 5 years old, and she still laid nice eggs every day. I’ve read that most hens will stop laying when they’re between 7 - 9 years old.


A broody hen will build and be completely dedicated to her nest - she’ll sit on the nest for ~23 hours a day, only coming off for 1 hour to eat, drink, bathe, and poop. She’ll probably puff up real big, hiss, and bite if you try to come near her and her eggs. Broody hens off the nest are generally louder, puffier, and will complain a lot lol.
Also, it’s worth noting that nest building ≠ broodiness - sometimes they just build the nest to build it.


That sounds okay to me.. I might take a few days to watch your hens whenever they’re in the coop, or whenever you go to feed them, and make note of who’s actually eating the oyster shell. Hens are very good at knowing how much calcium they need, so if they’re not laying, they more than likely won’t touch the oyster shell.


There’s many other people on here that do the same thing with moving the housing. I’m not sure if that would affect laying or not, as I personally don’t move my housing.


Generally, ducks will lay once a day. Some ducks are slower and will do every other day, some twice a day. It’s a little odd that everyone is only laying every few days.


I’m not sure. My ducks have been observed laying wherever, even with good nesting options - I’ve found way too many eggs underwater

The dog kennel nesting spot is good, that’s what I have for my ducks. I have the kennel covered on all sides (except the door), so it’s extra dark and warm, and a whole lot of hay lining the floor.


Yeah, that’s normal for new layers. They should work out any glitches like that soon.

If it were me, I’d spruce up their nesting spots (like you’re planning to) to make them more comfortable, and to be honest, I might just wait a little longer and see if there’s any changes.

I was very nervous about my current two hens - at 9 / 10 months old, both still had weird egg-laying habits. One laid in a nest, but had inconsistent egg sizes. The other would only lay soft-shelled eggs in the afternoon, in the middle of the yard, and then for a couple weeks, she stopped laying all together. Now, just a few months later at a year old, they’re both laying perfectly normal eggs, every day, in the morning, in a nest.

If you don’t want to wait, or are still concerned after waiting, I don’t think it’d hurt to try the D3 tablets, and see if they make any difference after a week or two.

Thanks for all the ideas and advice!
I'll keep watching this next week for all those possibilities.

The good news is that they all seem healthy and there are enough eggs to sell to keep them fed. Leave it to me to simply want an explanation. I mean they've kept laying reasonably all winter; why stop at the end of Feb when the weather is only getting better and there is more daylight? Maybe it's their Spring Break 'Laycation' also?

I just want to learn as much as I can as we are planning to expand our egg business and understanding these cycles and seasons will help me market for availability and demand throughout the year.

 

[Valley of Drakes]

I suspect you will find a new hidden nest outside soon. My girls get more sneaky in the spring. If not, they may be molting. Or, as previously mentioned, you may have too many drakes and the girls are stressed and not laying. My money is on a hidden nest though.

That would actually make me QUITE happy! I would love to have a mama raise more ducklings for us! What a joy!

 

[Valley of Drakes]

Okay! So January had consistant low egg numbers, with a slight up-tick in early February, but then a season low when the weather seemed to be warming. Go figure, we got a bit of a cold snap, nothing severe, but a bit of snow shortly after the egg-lull. I think the ducks just knew winter wasn't over yet. It WAS after all, still the Snow Moon.

THIS week we have seen a sudden jump in egg production, (double the winter average) JUST as the new moon arrived, for what will be the full moon near the solstice. I think the ducks are just smarter naturalist than myself. More attune to the "change'n times" than my human self.

I have also not yet found a nest or broody hen. ....but who know what the spring will hold!

Thank you all for your time, your thoughts, and suggestions! I learned a lot and took a lot of notes. I hope everyone has a very successful breeding season! @cheezenkwackers @KathiQuacks

-Ve at Valley of Drakes