Ducks laying like crazy.

[Fun Farmer]

I dont know about the rest of the country, but right now my ducks are layin eggs like crazy. This is just two weeks from my 2 pekin hens and my one Swedish Blue. I already have a set in an incubator that is due to hatch on Valentines, so I bought another LG bator and will set these today. I wonder if it is the cooler weather we are having here in FL, because I didnt have this type of production over the hot summer.

 

[Amiga]

Extremes in heat or cold can affect laying. Seems to me there is also a certain mystery element we have not figured out yet.

 

[enriquec]

That seems strange to me. (from what I know)

Mine are about to be 5 months so soon. Aside, from temp, which I didn't know, doesn't sunlight hours play a huge roll?

What part of Florida? Wondering cuz I'm in Tallahassee

 

[Amiga]

In my flock, temperature, diet and contentment seem to trump hours of light.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

This is my flocks first egg laying winter. I have 11 qualifying ducks. Just before Christmas, they hit their low of 2-3 eggs / day (this was only for a couple weeks when daylight was down to about 8-1/2 hours). Christmas and the day after they laid 4 eggs, for several days following they laid 6. Now they are up to 8-9 eggs every day - almost full production (daylight is now nearing 10 hours). And this is with a mix of breeds:

2 x Rouen
4 x Runner
2 x Swedish
1 x Welsh Harlequin
1 x Pekin
1 x Cayuga

They have no artificial light except for a red (which isn't supposed to affect them) heat lamp that comes on when it is below 20F.

@Amiga You are farther south than I am. It seems around 9 hours of daylight was the threshold where egg production really started falling. Do you get that low? Maybe that is why light isn't such a big factor. I know for example, the minimum daylight in Miami is 10:31 where the minimum daylight here is 8:33. I know temperature isn't a factor in my flock. (I get extreme cold, down to about -20F but not really extreme heat 95F is about the hottest). We just had a little cold snap hit last night. Went down to 18 degrees. Got 9 eggs this morning

and none of them were frozen yet

.

Here's today's haul:

 

[Amiga]

We get down to 9 hours, 11 minutes of daylight right around winter solstice. It's been in the low teens to near 0F lately. Today is a heat wave - got up to freezing!!!!

Very grateful for shelter for all of us, running water, and some heat. Oh, and food.

 

[TSW99]

Here in Tallahassee fl the fewest hours of sunlight is around 10:10 hrs and my ducks never been effected by it

 

[Tevyes Dad]

So that seems to be supporting data so far. I am guessing chickens must be more sensitive to length of daylight because it seems having supplemental lighting is a fairly normal thing to keep egg production up. If my observation of 9 hours being the point where production slows for ducks is valid, than everyone south of 43 degrees north shouldn't see much loss in productivity due to daylight hours (they will see other patterns as the biggest influence on egg production.) But everyone north of 43 degrees would see some drop off in the winter.(That's just north of Chicago.) I am at 46.5 degrees approx, I saw about two months total below 8 eggs/day and about 3 weeks of below 5 eggs/day. Maybe a week at 2 eggs/day. Anyone else with results above or below this latitude?

 

[Fun Farmer]

Enriquec. Im in Tampa. Go Noles!