How long to reach productive laying?

[Brassmaster]

My khaki campbells (3 hens) started to lay a couple of weeks ago. The first day was 2 eggs and then 1 or 0 each day since. How long should it take for them to start producing regularly and for the eggs to reach normal size?

 

[Dances with Ducks]

It probably depends on the individual duck. They sometimes lay regularly right from the begining. The size increase was so gradual on mine I couldn't say exactly at what point they became "normal" size, expecially since the size of the eggs does still vary somewhat on even year old ducks.

 

[10ducks]

I have a batch of 8 female Khakis that just started laying last week. The first egg came when they were 19 and 4/7th weeks. It was small (40 grams). Most days thereafter, I have gotten an egg. Never more than one a day. Weights (grams): 40, 46, no egg, 48, 48, 82(!), no egg, 72, 70. Strange pattern, if it can be called a pattern at all. I'm really curious as to whether just one hen is laying all of these, or if several have contributed eggs. These have all been found in their coop when I let them out in the morning; they free range all day and spend a lot of time on the pond, so I suppose some could be laying later in the day, or in the water, but I haven't seen any. I wish I had an egg cam!

I love this picture of the first 3 duck eggs with a supermarket chicken egg in the bowl. This reminds me: notice how the chicken egg's white is yellow-tinged? I never really noticed this before but I think all of the chicken eggs I've ever cracked have had some degree of yellow in the albumen. And the duck egg whites are water-clear. Do all duck eggs have those clear whites?

 

[Wifezilla]

WOW those yolks are orange. What are you feeding them? My ducks eggs have pretty clear whites and orangish yolks, but they aren't as dark as yours.

 

[10ducks]

I just feed them Purina Flockraiser (just switched to Layena) and scratch grain. But they spend most of the day outside, by or in our pond. It's a large enough pond that they've only muddied up a short stretch of the shoreline, and the rest is thickly grown with grasses, reeds, water lilies, weeds and algae. I know they eat many insects, both pond bugs and land bugs. They dabble for tadpoles, slugs and worms a lot.

Hey, congratulations on your Uno egg, Wifezilla! Isn't this just the most fun?

 

[Wifezilla]

It sure is