Egg size and amount

[zooweemama]

My ducks (well half of them anyway) began laying in September. I have 11 females ages are 23 and 26 weeks. 26 weekers are the Pekins and a black runner. The rest are all 23 week olds.

We are getting 4-5 eggs a day. Every now and then we have a 3 egg day. But very consistently 4 or 5 for the most part. We have never had a 6 egg day. We let them out at 10am because we were only getting 2-3 for a long time and suspected they might be laying on the pond. We got our first egg Sept 2.

They are now laying their eggs by 8am generally. We no longer get any more eggs after 830am. I would like to let them out earlier but since only half are laying- it's hard to know if they are donating to the pond or not. lol

They are on Mazuri maintenance and I mix in oyster shell (they won't eat it otherwise when I set it out). The egg size is also pretty small. I can easily fit the eggs in my recycled chicken egg cartons. Half the time they even wiggle. We have gotten 2 eggs that were about 92 grams in size and they were double yolkers. The average size is about 50-55 grams for an egg.

Is this pretty normal? Am I doing something wrong that the eggs are generally still smaller than chicken eggs? By this point shouldn't I be getting more than 4 or 5 eggs a day from 11 layers? Or is it possible they are all laying but each duck lays every other day?

Thanks!

 

[Amiga]

Considering the time of year, I suspect daylight may be playing a part here. My runners started laying between 16 and 22 weeks. By 22 weeks, all eleven were laying, but they were hatched in late February, so they reached probably 80% maturity by August.

I fed them Blue Seal layer pellets with oyster shell on the side. Early eggs were chicken size or so, but the larger ones started coming pretty soon. Those are about jumbo chicken egg size. Just right, IMO.

So, you could have some laying in water, or hiding eggs somewhere.

I wonder if you mixed in a little layer ration with that Mazuri. Actually, I remember Holderread writing about how it is not only calcium, but the calciumhosphorus ratio and D3 availability that helps with laying.

 

[zooweemama]

Considering the time of year, I suspect daylight may be playing a part here. My runners started laying between 16 and 22 weeks. By 22 weeks, all eleven were laying, but they were hatched in late February, so they reached probably 80% maturity by August.

I fed them Blue Seal layer pellets with oyster shell on the side. Early eggs were chicken size or so, but the larger ones started coming pretty soon. Those are about jumbo chicken egg size. Just right, IMO.

So, you could have some laying in water, or hiding eggs somewhere.

I wonder if you mixed in a little layer ration with that Mazuri. Actually, I remember Holderread writing about how it is not only calcium, but the calciumhosphorus ratio and D3 availability that helps with laying.

Thank you, ma'am! I have a mixed waterfowl flock- 11 females, 3 drakes and 2 young geese (14 weeks old male and female). Would a laying ration hurt them with oyster shell too? The ducks ignore the oyster shell entirely so I have had to mix it in. I had considered getting Mazuri layer but I am most concerned with the geese. They share sleeping quarters and eat with the ducks (they all eat the same food together at the same time).

 

[Kevin565]

A lot of people in the chicken sections seem to still have oyster shells available when feeding layer ration. Though with the geese eating their feed I personally would have them on a layer ration especially since they are still fairly young.

Also congrats on the BYC Friend award Zooweemama!

 

[zooweemama]

We will be building a shelter for the geese this fall. So we will eventually get them out hopefully by October's end. Should I mix layer with the mazuri maintenance and offer the oyster on the side? Do you think mixing the 2 feeds would be enough to help the ducks but not enough to hurt the young geese while they wait for their own pad?

 

[zooweemama]

A lot of people in the chicken sections seem to still have oyster shells available when feeding layer ration. Though with the geese eating their feed I personally would have them on a layer ration especially since they are still fairly young.

Also congrats on the BYC Friend award Zooweemama!

Oh and thank you! I am so blind- someone had to tell me! hehe

 

[Kevin565]

Honestly when it's only mixed in some I don't think it would be detrimental to their health. Especially since they will be in their own housing quarters after awhile. However, I've never personally done it so I can't say from personal experience.

 

[zooweemama]

Honestly when it's only mixed in some I don't think it would be detrimental to their health. Especially since they will be in their own housing quarters after awhile. However, I've never personally done it so I can't say from personal experience.

Thanks Kevin! I personally feel ok mixing the feeds for a short time. I will feel very very sad to remove the geese from the ducks. The geese have become the ducks protectors. No joke. In the morning I go out at 8am and pick up each goose and set them outside the coop (it's a split door so I have to lean over, preventing the ducks from leaving). The geese walk to the pond to get a sip of water and then the hang out for TWO hours by the coop waiting for ducks to be released. They have attacked my 6 year old when she tried to collect eggs from the ducks (actually my hunky 11 yo too!). When we release the ducks at 10am, they wait off to the side and often bring up the rear and walk them all down to the pond. At night, the geese boss them all up to the coop and make them stay there and wait for us to feed them and herd them all the way into the coop. I will miss that so much- it's been a huge help.

Before the geese where sharing with them? The ducks refused to come out of the pond every night. No amount of peas could get them out of that stupid pond. It was awful- reduced to getting INTO the pond, throwing objects near the darn ducks to herd them to one end of the pond and then I would get in and herd them the rest of the way out. It was becoming a nightmare. Sometimes it would be almost dark by the time we got this accomplished. The geese have completely taken care of that problem for us. They herd the ducks to the coop just before sunset. EVERY night. I think we will have to build the geese's home near the duck's house because the geese really get frantic when the ducks are separated from them. LOL

Anyway that was windy. But I will miss that!

 

[Kevin565]

Okay your geese need to have a talk with mine!

Mine can be within feet of the ducks without a bite or hiss. That's the main reason I ended up separating everyone into different pens. You truly have some keepers there Zoo! It's so nice to hear of different species interacting in such a wonderful manner.

 

[zooweemama]

Okay your geese need to have a talk with mine!

Mine can be within feet of the ducks without a bite or hiss. That's the main reason I ended up separating everyone into different pens. You truly have some keepers there Zoo! It's so nice to hear of different species interacting in such a wonderful manner.

I know it's weird! But I will take the weirdness. Night times are so much less stressful. The chickens put themselves in their coop at dusk. The geese boss the ducks up to the coop before the sun sets. It's really nice. I imagine that will change some Spring when the gander comes into season. I hope the past 2 months of training have gotten the ducks into enough of a routine they can do it somewhat on their own. They had been on one before geese. But then one day they literally stopped coming out of the pond. Peas were ignored. Other treats ignored. They would try to tuck themselves in around the reeds to go to bed. AHH! lol