Ducks Laying at Just over 4 months old? Cleaning duck eggs properly? Duck egg containers? Eggs & A

[canard]

*Be kind, as this is my 1st post!*

We have 8 Pekin that we have raised since they were a day old mid April. We also rescued 11 Khakis & 4 Runner ducks (Now 3...We suspect a hawk was the culprit). The Pekin started to lay a couple of weeks ago when they would have been a little over 4 months old. I was surprised as I read ducks don't start to lay for 6 months or so. If ducks are laying now, is it likely they will continue to lay through the winter too? If the others do not begin to lay by fall, is it likely they won't begin to lay until spring?

I switched the ducks to layer crumbles. We have used Dumor & Tizwhiz Select. I hear Purina was good too. I have read the drakes shouldn't consume the extra calcium...... but with so many ducks & drakes, it would be hard to try to separate them. Do any of you separate your ducks & drakes at feeding time? They get feed crumbles in the morning & we leave some out all day. They also get chopped up fresh veggies & frozen peas for treats. They LOVE to eat bugs & dabble in mud. They free range a lot, have swimming containers & fresh water buckets. I give them vitamin/electrolytes in their water on hot days. I want all the ducks to be healthy but I spend a lot of time on duck care already & need to keep things simple.

We put them in a penned in area with bird netting on top when we are gone for work. We also leave the pen open when they free range & they run in if they see a large bird such as a blue heron or hawk.

We need to build our "master coop & run" this fall. We have bought several books, looked online, especially here on this site & have a lot of ideas..... but I think I will ask for advice in another post prior to actual construction!

I originally thought we would raise them as livestock, but the ducks have stolen my heart!

The duck eggs vary in size & hardness. Some are tiny & round, some are "chicken egg" sized & others are HUGE. Some have very soft shells, like vellum. I offer oyster shell free choice in the Pekin's coop, as they are the only ones laying. The Pekin usually lay their eggs in one spot in their coop. I have found 1 to 6 eggs per morning since they began to lay. (They occasionally lay an egg or two late afternoon or early evening, usually the soft shelled variety.) I usually put fresh straw in their "laying spot" each night. Still, the ducks eggs are often mucky when I collect them. I have tried various cleaning techniques. I would love to hear others ideas on how to clean & store duck eggs. Also, are the softer shelled eggs safe to eat? We cook all eggs.

Also, my dog Max is on special prescription allergy food. The vet lets me feed him some veggie treats. I asked the vet if Max could eat duck eggs. He said to go ahead & try it & stop if he seems itchy. I also have a friend with chicken egg allergies. Does anyone else have experience with duck eggs & dogs or people with allergies?

 

[Amiga]

And welcome to Duckdom!

I understand your request . . . sometimes "old hands" have a strange sense of "humor."

But with rare exception here, we are thrilled to have a new member.

Sounds like you are doing well, I would want to be really sure about your netting across the top. Depending on the kinds of predators you have, you may want to make that a little more secure. We have foxes here, and they come out during the day, so I covered our 10'x16' day pen with 2"x3" coated woven wire. I also have coated chain link across the bottom of the pen, fastened at the edges to prevent digging under.

Our flock is all girls, so I will tell you that from what I have read, that flock feed with free choice oyster shell seems to work for many people. There are some who feed all the flock layer pellets and say they have no trouble. Storey's Guide indicates that there is long term organ damage to drakes who eat layer feed, so see what you think.

The larger eggs are, I would think, from the Pekins. My runners lay jumbo chicken egg sized eggs, sometimes regular chicken egg size.

Not all ducks consume enough calcium or process it well. There are many factors, including calcium to phosphorus ratios, D3 intake, and genetics. Keep trying different things. You might want to separate boys from girls for a little bit, maybe an hour or two, or even less, and give the girls some extra calcium treats like dandelion greens, or oyster shell dust in their drinking water.

What is your drake to duck ratio? One to three (up to six) is often recommended.

There are always exceptions, by the way.

I eat soft shelled eggs same day, opening them into a clear custard cup for inspection, and I cook them thoroughly. If they have no cracks or splits and have not been sitting in poo or water, they seem fine to me (but then I have a very capable immune system

)

Some people with chicken egg allergies do well with duck eggs, some do not. The vet's advice sounds reasonable.

I was advised not to do any more than wipe the chunks off with a dry towel before storing the eggs. If there is serious schmootz on one, I wash it just before cracking it open.

I give the ducks clean straw to build little nests with and lay their eggs there. Most of the time they do that, and the eggs are pretty clean. Sometimes they just drop them randomly.

 

[canard]

Hola Amiga!

The eggs are only from the Pekin as they all have separate coops.

I read the same advice you gave about the proper duck to drake ratio. The ratio of ducks to drakes for the Pekin seems good. On the other hand, now that the Khakis have grown & they are all feathered, we have more drakes than ducks, so that is a problem we will have to address. On top of that, one of the female Khakis seems to be flirting with the Pekin the past few days, which leads some Khaki drakes to chase them. LOL! Oh boy! I am not certain but I believe I have at least 1 or 2 females out of the 3 runners. I listened to them and thought I head two quack and one whisper, but I could be mistaken.

The ducks interact somewhat but tend to hang together as 3 separate flocks. The poor runners are so few in number. The Runners try to tag along with the Khakis but they were mean to them at first but now seem to tolerate them. Some of them do interact a bit. They all eat together, sometimes some from different "flocks" from the same dish at the same time. I put out at least 3 or 4 bowls of food spaced out.

I read about the calcium causing organ damage too. I want to keep things simple but don't want the drakes to have ill effects or die before their time.

Thank you for all of your advice regarding pen safety & duck egg cleaning!

 

[Amiga]

Your greeting prompted me to think I ought to have said,

Bonjour, canard!

Flocks all have their own personalities. I know of a flock of KCs and IRs that got along just like one flock. The Pekins had to have their own area, though, because the drakes were brutal. That can happen. Drakes can suddenly become menaces, especially to ducks of a smaller breed so do please be watching for that, too.

Sounds like you will need to make some adjustments. Enjoy them, I have found ducks wonderfully therapeutic, in spite of the tough times when someone gets sick or injured.

And keep them safe!

 

[canard]

Bonjour Amiga!

We just had a hawk silently stalking all our beautiful ducks while we were outside with them. Hawks are bold. All the sudden the ducks started to tilt their heads to the side & look upwards. They all ran into the netted pen.

All of the Pekin have only tried to mate with Pekin. One Khaki girl seems to hit on the Pekin for the past few days. The Pekin don't seem interested in the female ducks that are not Pekin....at least not yet. One Khaki girl seems to hit on the other Khaki drakes. The Khaki drakes seem to try to mate only in the pool so far. If they seem too aggressive towards a female (neck biting & stepping on them), I shoo them away. The female Khakis seem to only swim in the pool when a couple of drakes are present. They hop out if too many drakes jump in.

My Pekin are very docile. When we first brought home the Khakis, they got a bit territorial and would chase off the Khakis, like a bull going after a cape in a bull fight. They would stick their heads down and charge towards them but not hurt them. When we first brought home the Runners, the Khakis were very aggressive towards them. In fact, we mainly penned off the Runners from the others during the day for a few weeks to let them all acclimate & let the Runners get a bit bigger to hold their own.

We accepted the Runners from a girl going off to college, who claimed they were 3 months old. That seemed like it would work great at first. Then we met up with her & saw them & they looked about 3 weeks old at best. They were fuzzy with very few feathers. LOL. It sounded like she took them in & didn't really know their age. When I asked their age again & said they didn't look 3 months old she hesitated and said, "I think they are about 2 months old".

 

[Amiga]

Well, good that you took them in, though it will mean some juggling. I just love my runners.

But they are my peeps, and I am their Mutter Ente.

 

[canard]

Hola Amiga & Others!

We LOVE ducks. When we saw ducks who were in need, we jumped at the chance to help them.

I am guessing that people who bond readily with their ducks raise them from a day or two old. We raised the Pekin from "infancy" & they seem the most imprinted on us by far. Then again, from what I have read, Pekin are a breed of domesticated duck which imprints easily on humans. I imagine the manner in which older ducklings or ducks are raised before you acquire them is a factor when you adopt ducks. It seems like many people have very integrated mixed flocks. I have read that people with different "generations" of flocks even of the same breed notice intermingling but that each individual flock remains somewhat separate. Our 3 flocks do mingle together much more as time passes.

Our Runners seem very high strung. The Khakis are a little less high strung. The Pekin are very sociable, calm & friendly. I imagine people have very different experiences even with the same domesticated breed depending upon the line of ducks they acquire & how they are raised. We wanted to get Khakis & Runners first but the local feed stores only had Pekin left. We are so thankful we have Pekin because they are really sweet and endearing pets. It would be interesting to hear from others about the behavior traits of their domestic duck breeds in homogenous or mixed flocks. I have several books which describe the various breeds but would love to hear about people's own experiences.

I would also love to know how many of you intended to keep ducks as "livestock" & have your hearts melt at the very sight of your flock! I anticipated ducks would have funny antics & tons of personality, yet I had no idea how sweet & sociable they would be. Even many of the ones who do not want to be touched seem to come around to get human attention, even if no treats are involved. Some of them like to be pet a bit & some even enjoy a duck hug now and again.

They all love to come around and get veggie treats. I found very useful suggestions for appropriate duck snacks in one of the threads posted here. The Pekin were quite shy at first. We handled them quite a bit as ducklings but I have to admit that when they were about 8-10 weeks old they were social but didn't like to be touched or held. A poster on one of the threads pointed out that a way to a ducks heart is through treats. That is SO true. The Khakis are not very shy at all and eventually all of them would eat out of your hand within a few days. At first only two Pekin would, then 4 of them, then all but two and finally all of them would. Now, the Pekin, who are by far the loudest, will at times gather around the deck & beg loudly for treats. We often throw the chopped up veggies for all of them to eat, but the Pekin really seem to prefer to bond with us & eat out of our hands.

My boyfriend isn't into the pet dog or ducks as much as I am and after helping clean coops & the pen 2 or 3 times the chore mysteriously became all mine. LOL! However, he is willing to help design & build a bigger coop & run. When he came home the other evening after the ducks had "gone to bed" in their coops, I watched him approach the coops. He stooped down & chatted with the ducks. I let him know I saw him when he came in and he totally downplayed it. I said, "you love the ducks". He protested somewhat and sheepishly claimed he "liked them".

 

[ducklucky]

LOL, toooo funny with your boyfriend. He loves them just as much as you do, but he'll never admit it. They are so comical, you can't help yourself.
Don't wash my eggs unless they're out for sale, and then use a no soap green scrubber under cold water, they're still stained, but not too bad. Dry really, really well. Jumbo cartons work okay unless you get those gigormous double yolkers, I usually just lightly rubber band the carton and if for sale, ask people to please not squeeze the charmin'. Feed our dogs eggs all the time, but they don't have an allergy. You will see various sizes as they are still "coming on" so to speak, but things will even out a bit with time. From what I've heard, they will lay thru winter, just make sure you grab those eggs b4 they freeze. Will also grind up my eggshells and add that to their food instead of oyster shell, it's free and has a lot of calcium. And yes, the treats, chopped veges, raw corn, frozen peas, let them eat from your hand. It's our favorite time of the day, they allow petting and affection. They comingle with the chickens, and it's quite a scene at treat time. Neither group is intimidated, the chickens will sneak right under them to get their share. You can get duck egg cartons online, but you probably don't want to buy in the case bulk, it's a lot of cartons. If you're keeping them for yourself, you can keep them on the counter in a basket or bowl for quite some time. Have fun with your troops, we too have to plan winter quarters real soon.

 

[canard]

Hi Ducklucky!

I see you are in Maine. Do you have cold weather & snow experience with your ducks already? I need to keep all of the seasons in mind, especially winter, when planning the duck coop & run. If you have any great coop or run ideas, let me know. We bought a ton of wood at auction, so we have plenty of that. We were planning to use welded wire, AKA hardware wire. I was looking up large poly water tanks with drains the other day. I was thinking they would make a nice sturdy, drainable pond within their run. I also was considering using a layer of gravel and sand to help with drainage in the pen area. What do you suggest?

Thanks for your duck egg tips. It seems like the huge eggs are double yolkers. We got our two biggest eggs yesterday and today. The rest were "chicken egg" sized the past two days. We are trying to eat the previously collected eggs first. I bet they are double yolkers though. OMG, they are GIGANTIC!

I am putting fresh straw in coops today. I had better get back outside again because it gets dark so early. The ducks LOVE fresh straw. They make this special noise they reserve for when they get to eat bugs out of fresh straw. It is the cutest happy honking noise. They only make it when excited over clean straw.

 

[canard]

Hi Ducklucky,


I just got done putting down fresh straw. The ducks responded with enthusiastic happy honks!

BTW, you are so right about the boyfriend. I saw him enter the back yard with his flashlight the other night and go right up to the Pekin's coop first. I watched him look into the wire near the top and talk softly to them. Instead of opening the door & saying "hi" I just watched, cuz I know he wouldn't do that in front of me! I know some people are more into animals than others but I think he is really attached to them too. He just won't clean the coop or pen. He's more than happy to scarf down a bunch of eggs though!

We argued the other week because I wanted to keep the shells, heat them up, crush them & give them to the ducks as a natural source of calcium. The boyfriend was so mad. He said he didn't want to turn them into cannibals. LOL!

BTW, I keep wanting to call you Luckyducky! : )