Hey Everyone! Some late night thoughts of mine!
I have 4 silver appleyards that are a year old, they have been doing great laying. They even started laying earlier then I expected with our horrible weather we have had (Minnesota). The girls have always shared a nest, my female Dolly will create one and then they will all lay in it. I stopped collecting for a couple days and she started setting on May 30th (9 eggs).
Now here is the part I found weird; The other 3 ducks stopped laying on the 30th. Not a single egg from them since. They aren't laying in Dolly's nest, as I peak on it every day when she gets up for a quick bite to eat and a dip in the pool. There isn't anywhere where they can be laying without me noticing. (They only freerange with close supervision and the last day they did was on the 29th) I've never had ducks do this. So, a couple of my theories for why they aren't laying:
- They are beeing slightly broody, so they think they don't have to lay while one is setting.
- We have had a couple heat waves, so they stopped laying in order to focus on keeping cool and regulating body homeostasis.
- Maybe a combination of both?
One of the others, Dory, has made nests before. So I don't understand why she hasn't made one and the others follow suit in laying in it. This weekend the temp has dropped back into more normal temps for us. So I am hoping this week I will be seeing some eggs! They get laying feed (16%) , all flock feed(18%) , oyster shells, some scratch yummy food I made that contains miscellaneous seeds and such (all seeds and nuts reccomened on here, they only get this in moderation as a treat) They have had the same food for 6 months, so nothing new there.
Dolly on her nest.
Why make a nest in the 2 buckets and laying box when we can be under mom's chair? Needless to say I'm not allowed on my chair anymore.
Anyways, any feedback is welcome.
I feel like I post lots of questions on here..
I have 4 silver appleyards that are a year old, they have been doing great laying. They even started laying earlier then I expected with our horrible weather we have had (Minnesota). The girls have always shared a nest, my female Dolly will create one and then they will all lay in it. I stopped collecting for a couple days and she started setting on May 30th (9 eggs).
Now here is the part I found weird; The other 3 ducks stopped laying on the 30th. Not a single egg from them since. They aren't laying in Dolly's nest, as I peak on it every day when she gets up for a quick bite to eat and a dip in the pool. There isn't anywhere where they can be laying without me noticing. (They only freerange with close supervision and the last day they did was on the 29th) I've never had ducks do this. So, a couple of my theories for why they aren't laying:
- They are beeing slightly broody, so they think they don't have to lay while one is setting.
- We have had a couple heat waves, so they stopped laying in order to focus on keeping cool and regulating body homeostasis.
- Maybe a combination of both?
One of the others, Dory, has made nests before. So I don't understand why she hasn't made one and the others follow suit in laying in it. This weekend the temp has dropped back into more normal temps for us. So I am hoping this week I will be seeing some eggs! They get laying feed (16%) , all flock feed(18%) , oyster shells, some scratch yummy food I made that contains miscellaneous seeds and such (all seeds and nuts reccomened on here, they only get this in moderation as a treat) They have had the same food for 6 months, so nothing new there.
Dolly on her nest.
Why make a nest in the 2 buckets and laying box when we can be under mom's chair? Needless to say I'm not allowed on my chair anymore.
Anyways, any feedback is welcome.
I feel like I post lots of questions on here..
