Ducks laying soft eggs...

[2txmedics]

Ok My ducks started laying at 4mos old...and at first the eggs were the way there suppose to be, firm and nice....now almost 1mo later, there eggs are soft shells...I feed them the same food I feed my flocks....laying pellets, my chickens have hard shells....

I have 2 pekins, 1 mallard, and 1 blue swedish

Any ideas?
Thanks!!

 

[duckluck]

I personally think these ducks still look very young and I wouldn't be alarmed, I think their "plumbing" is still being given its test run.

 

[Amiga]

With my runners laying soft shelled eggs more this year, I checked in with the vet who thinks they need more calcium. They have layer mash and free choice oyster shell. But, nonetheless, Sieben had to take neoglucan for a few weeks (she's now laying regular eggs), everybody started with liquid calcium gluconate in their mash. I'm still getting one or two soft ones out of the five or six being laid each day.

Duck_feeder and another member reminded me of the importance of Vitamin D and proper phosphorus levels. I checked, and as far as I can tell, we're good on D and P.

Last year, when they were playing hop on top, eggs would pop out early (I saw thins). But this year, I cannot say for sure that's what's causing early laying. Might be in some cases, though.

 

[2txmedics]

Yes, in this picture they were younger than now...they were born On March 9th, but started laying in Early July...which I found strange...this was the only current pic I had of them to post....When they first started laying they were laying hard shelled eggs, but now they are soft all the time.

I was just concerned that it being soft they would have a hard time passing the eggs thru the vent.

Thanks.

 

[dkaval54]

My Pekin girl, who I started raising from a "day old" duckling about 19 weeks ago, started laying eggs a few days ago. The first 2 were
ripped or deformed and soft. I found them in the duck enclosure. The 3rd one was layed 2 days later in the duck house & was small but otherwise normal. The following day I was feeding her some treats on my deck & a soft shelled deformed egg just sort of fell out of her. It had a yolk & albumin. Then a few hours later I was changing the water in the duck pool and there was a soft rubbery shell in the water.
That was 2 in one day. She is eating oyster shell on demand and allowed to forage a few time a week. It this immature reproductive
system or is there something I am doing wrong. I am feeding them grower chicken crumbles & scratch, yogart & greens & other veggies occasionally. I planned to change them to layer chicken feed soon - just wanted to finish up the bag. Any ideas? could it be the drake that
is too " loving" with her?

 

[Amiga]

Does she get free choice oyster shell or other high calcium supplement? And yes, the drake may be causing some interference if he's, well, ya know, very active and uhm, overly enthusiastic.

How many girls do you have? I am told many drakes need at least three females.

 

[zzGypsy]

oyster shell, free choice.
we keep it in their pen all the time, sometimes they eat it sometimes they don't, but we've had no problems with soft shells. if you offer it and they don't eat it, and you're still getting soft shells, you might try mixing it with their other feed. we got some adults that didn't seem to know what it was for, so we mixed some in their scratch/crumbles, and then after a few days put it in the pan half and half (not mixed, but poured in side by side with the feed) for another week. after that, they seemed to figure it out and we'd just keep it in free choice in a separate pan.

there are other high calcium things they can eat also... in the winter, we feed some nice green leafy alfalfa... it's high calcium and they'll pick through and eat the leaves when there's no grazing available.

 

[dkaval54]

I have one sweet girl & one crazy drake - I'm very fond of them but they are dirty and alot of work. I won't get more ducks. I also have 7 chickens. She layed a normal egg today. What do I feed them to make sure they get enough niacin?

 

[laurapea]

Hi all, I hatched a drake and a girl on 1st May 2020. The eggs were sold to me as white crested Pekin but are definitely crossed. My girl is a honey coloured Buff cross I suspect.

Just under 2 weeks ago my girl started laying once a day. I didn’t expect it to be so regularly right away and I was also shocked she started so late in the year! The eggs were small but perfectly formed and delicious too! We even had one double yolker! However, today I found 2, possibly even 3 soft eggs. (Photos attached.) She has plenty of access to oyster shells all day and all night and is on layers pellets. She has plenty of oats, corn and greens daily, plus mealworms and whitebait too for treats.

Should I be concerned yet? Or is this just her cycle settling-in period? Would you recommend a calcium supplement straight away, or wait to see what the next few eggs are like first?

I saw above about the drakes being overly amorous with just one girl, but I only ever see them at it once a day so I don’t think that’s a problem (yet!). But I do plan to get more girls in December as we are in the process of moving house so I want to move first before I get more.

Many thanks in advance for your help. First time bird Mom!

 

[Isaac 0]

Hi all, I hatched a drake and a girl on 1st May 2020. The eggs were sold to me as white crested Pekin but are definitely crossed. My girl is a honey coloured Buff cross I suspect.

Just under 2 weeks ago my girl started laying once a day. I didn’t expect it to be so regularly right away and I was also shocked she started so late in the year! The eggs were small but perfectly formed and delicious too! We even had one double yolker! However, today I found 2, possibly even 3 soft eggs. (Photos attached.) She has plenty of access to oyster shells all day and all night and is on layers pellets. She has plenty of oats, corn and greens daily, plus mealworms and whitebait too for treats.

Should I be concerned yet? Or is this just her cycle settling-in period? Would you recommend a calcium supplement straight away, or wait to see what the next few eggs are like first?

I saw above about the drakes being overly amorous with just one girl, but I only ever see them at it once a day so I don’t think that’s a problem (yet!). But I do plan to get more girls in December as we are in the process of moving house so I want to move first before I get more.

Many thanks in advance for your help. First time bird Mom!

I responded to your other post. If you want to get replies faster, it may be best to post your own thread.