Egg Explosion in Duck House!!!

[Featherland]

Or Duck Math

I have 4 female ducks. Two have been laying for about a month. The last 2 for the past 7-10 days. I have been getting 3-4 eggs a day since the new ones started laying. This morning my dd came in the house holding a soft shelled egg. (I got another soft shelled egg a few days ago.) She said there were at least 7 eggs in the duck house and nesting boxes. I went to look and there were 7 regular eggs, 1 soft shelled egg and 1 egg mass. Yesterday I got 3 eggs and the day before only 2 but before then I got 4 a day for a few days in a row. My duck house where they spend the night is small. There is NO place to hide eggs. Now it is possible my dd missed seeing an egg yesterday. But 9 eggs? In 1 day? That doesn't add up!

 

[KansasKid]

When they first start laying the number and quality of eggs is wacky and ranges back and forth but after a while you'll start to get a constant 1 egg per hen a day and they will be hard shelled. Good thing to do if your not already is to provide oyster shell.

As for an exploding egg, it could be the some soft shelled ones but i don't know how unless they were old and built up gas or something

 

[FenDruadin]

Awesome! Sounds like you've got very busy girls.

It is not unheard of for a girl to lay twice in one day, especially when they first get started, but it is unusual. Don't know how to explain your duck math!

But then, duck math never really does add up. For instance:

1 duck + 1 duck ought to= 2 ducks

BUT

Usually 1 duck + 1 duck = "Well, there was just 1 left in the feed store bin and I couldn't leave it all alone, so now I have 3 ducks"
(1+1=3) =
"My friend's neighbor has three ducks that she doesn't want and isn't taking care of and so I HAD to bring them home and give them a good place to live, but I will definitely rehome them as soon as I can"
(ergo 1+1=6) =
"Now that I have 6 ducks, one more won't hurt but you can't just hatch ONE egg so I'm going to put 8 eggs in the incubator that I got for Christmas and... now I have 11"
(1+1+8-3=11) =
"OMG I have too many ducks and they're stinky and too many males beating up on each other and the females so I have to rehome 5 males so now I have 6 ducks again"
(1+1+8-3=6) =
"Well, I just got rid of a bunch of ducks so I can afford to purchase that very cool flock of only 8 ducks in a breed and color I've been wanting forever"
(1+1+8-3+8=13) =
"Now I have too many males but I can't part with any of them so I'd better buy a few more females plus two of them have gone broody so I have a bunch of babies on the way and now everyone is dumping their unwanted and abandoned ducks on me so I have... "

(1+1=Too Many To Count)

Have fun.

 

[MysticalMom]

And that is definitely TRUE duck math!!!

 

[duckluck]

Anyone who has ducks usually is terrible at doing subtraction or division but becomes an ace at addition and multiplication!

I'm telling you, this is the new math that no mathematician can figure out unless they have livestock!

 

[KansasKid]

What are you guys talking about 20-0 is 20 and 20/0 isn't mathematically possible.

 

[Featherland]

Quote:

Not a literal exploded egg! It just looked like eggs were everywhere when we looked in the duck house!

I have supplied them with oyster shell.

 

[Featherland]

Quote:
Too funny!

 

[Featherland]

The strange thing is I never got more eggs than the amount of ducks I have before.

Do you think one layed all the extras? It would be strange if more than 1 did that the same day!

 

[FenDruadin]

My first guess would be that your daughter missed some--I know that seems impossible, but they can be VERY good at hiding them, especially when it's cold.

It is *possible* that one duck laid them all, or that several are laying more than one a day, but unlikely.

So I really don't know what to tell you--I've had mysterious stashes of eggs suddenly appear when I thought I'd collected them all, and stood around scratching my head about it. I think the ducks sometimes hide them and then later move them around & they end up somewhere that I see them.

On the other hand, if you've got soft-shelled eggs, it's possible one of your girls had some sort of temporary blockage or whatever, and then just pushed a bunch out at once--the outer shell is the last layer to be added to the egg before it exits the body, so she may have just had several come out before they were ready, and they're all hers. Not sure whether that's something to worry about or not, but I'd keep and eye on them and make sure they're all acting normal just in case.

They do tend to lay strange eggs when they are first getting started, though--strange shapes, shell-less, strange sizes, even strange colors sometimes.

Wish I were more help!