First egg

[New duck mommy 2021]

She's a Muscovy. I've been told they take longer to mature than Mallard descendants so I am constantly anxious with worry not knowing when it will happen. Also, I don't know if cleaning their house & refluffing the bedding everyday will make her feel it's not safe to lay her egg in there.

I clean my pen every morning and fluff the wood chips as well
So far it hasn’t stopped any of my girls from laying
Although they get frustrated with me taking the eggs each morning and every now and then lay in a different spot lol
@Miss Lydia has Muscovy girls and may have tips for you

 

[ProudRedneck]

I clean my pen every morning and fluff the wood chips as well
So far it hasn’t stopped any of my girls from laying
Although they get frustrated with me taking the eggs each morning and every now and then lay in a different spot lol
@Miss Lydia has Muscovy girls and may have tips for you

Thanks, yes @Miss Lydia has helped me numerous times with questions about my baby girl.

 

[Miss Lydia]

My Muscovy are great at laying inside their house. But when they were young they would try and find any place they could crawl under to lay so they could brood. I had to put up hardware cloth over any crevice they could get into and it was amazing some of the places.
My Runners and Buffs even at 6 yrs old still will lay an egg where ever the notion hits them, running up the hill to their upper property standing by the water buckets. They use to even lay an egg in their pool but haven't done that in a few years.
I'd never let any of mine brood outside of their houses. I take up eggs daily even from those that want to brood. Oh they don't like it but We didn't let anyone sit and hatch this year. They still went broody but had no egg[Muscovy] I have one Muscovy who is broody for the 3rd time and it has been so hard for me to not let her have eggs she is my best mama. But I didn't give in.
My Muscovy are slow to mature never had one under 9 months lay an egg or start mating.
I clean every day and use deep litter bedding. Doesn't bother them at all.

 

[ProudRedneck]

Since she's Muscovy, give her a nice deep nesting box. One that is covered. What I did for mine is use a large plastic tote and cut out an opening. I place it lid-side down, but if I make any more in the future (which I probably will) I'll put the lid on top, so it's easier to check on them. Something like this:

View attachment 3245871

This is my layout pictured below. The whole top of the house/box is a hinged lid that I access/clean from.

 

[ProudRedneck]

My Muscovy are great at laying inside their house. But when they were young they would try and find any place they could crawl under to lay so they could brood. I had to put up[ hardware cloth over any crevice they could get into and it was amazing some of the places.
My Runners and Buffs even at 6 yrs old still will lay an egg where ever the notion hits them, running up the hill to their upper property standing by the water buckets. They use to even lay an egg in their pool but haven't done that in a few years.
I'd never let any of mine brood outside of their houses. I take up eggs daily even from those that want to brood. Oh they don't like it but We didn't let anyone sit and hatch this year. They still went broody but had no egg[Muscovy] I have one Muscovy who is broody for the 3rd time and it has been so hard for me to not let her have eggs she is my best mama. But I didn't give in.
My Muscovy are slow to mature never had one under 9 months lay an egg or start mating.
I clean every day and use deep litter bedding. Doesn't bother them at all.

I finally got video showing Daffy offering herself... I'll tag you on my thread I started and post it.

 

[Featherlove23]

Congratulations

I have mixed feelings about Daffy laying her first. I'm excited because it's going to feel like my baby is really grown up now but I'm scared she's going to get egg bound or something else terrible is going to happen. Phew... tearing up now just typing that I've been providing Oyster Shell since 7/28 just to make sure she doesn't have any problems with forming her first one. No egg yet but I can see on camera that she is eating more and more of the shells each week. She'll be 6 months old on 9/20.

For reference, how small are we talking? How small is that pictured egg compared to other everyday items?

It's about the size of a small chicken egg. That's why had my husband not seen my duck lay it I wouldn't have believed it came from the duck. She had another yesterday and it was a little bigger and a little thicker of a shell. This one was in the coop this time.We got them oyster shells yesterday and gave them there first feed scoop full today mixed with there feed. She started laying sooner than we thought. My ducks are Pekin. Just over 4 months. I'm expecting my chickens to start laying within the end of this month to next month ish. Even got them on vitamin water.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

It's about the size of a small chicken egg. That's why had my husband not seen my duck lay it I wouldn't have believed it came from the duck. She had another yesterday and it was a little bigger and a little thicker of a shell. This one was in the coop this time.We got them oyster shells yesterday and gave them there first feed scoop full today mixed with there feed. She started laying sooner than we thought. My ducks are Pekin. Just over 4 months. I'm expecting my chickens to start laying within the end of this month to next month ish. Even got them on vitamin water.

That’s great my pekin and pekin cross all started around 4.5-5 months
My Swedish girl is just 4 months and hasn’t started yet ( I’m not sure if she will be as fast as my other girls )
You don’t have to mix the oyster shells with the feed
I put mine in a separate bowl and they eat as needed
You can also crush up egg shells and they will eat those too for calcium

 

[Moments]

One of my two ducks laid her first egg today. I won't have believed it was from a duck because of how small it was. But my husband saw the whole thing. Said she tried to lay it in the duck pool. That it popped out just as she jumped in. It was a soft shell but we're getting them oyster shells tomorrow for calcium. So proud of her.
My very first egg from any of my birds from my first time having my own flock

I've read many times that ducks tend to lay their eggs before 9am so if you don't let them out before then there's a good chance they'll lay in their coop. Mine laid for us first time this past Thursday (1 egg, didn't notice til later in the day) and again on Sunday (3 eggs). Around 8:30am I had let them out and 1 was still fairly warm. We checked around the house later to see if they ended up laying any outside and there were none to be found

 

[Callender Girl]

Congrats on the duck eggs! My runners rarely lay eggs any time except early morning. But, this summer, at least one held onto hers until after the group was released from the coop. I found a clutch of eggs hidden inside a tangle of trumpet vines.

Hope you find more eggs today!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Congrats on the duck eggs! My runners rarely lay eggs any time except early morning. But, this summer, at least one held onto hers until after the group was released from the coop. I found a clutch of eggs hidden inside a tangle of trumpet vines.

Hope you find more eggs today!

They can sure be sneaky. lol