i'm a chicken guy that wants to know about duck egg laying

[snowydiamonds]

My Cayuga's (a hen and two drakes) and Magpies (two hens) have laid duck eggs all Spring and Summer. The Cayuga hen is now sitting on a nest, determined to hatch them and she's also got a few BO chicken and RIR chicken eggs mixed in there because I've got them sharing the pen/coop for the summer. I prefer dark meat of turkey so the plan is to butcher each Fall from the geese and ducks after they raise their young for at least two months of the summer and overwinter 4-6 ducks and geese, each. In the meantime, as they've matured, I've had wonderful and large eggs from both. If I lived in a warmer area, I'd keep more over winter.

 

[FenDruadin]

My Runners lay an egg a day all summer, with occasional breaks for molting or because something freaked them out. They also lay off and on all winter. I need to start keeping records of exactly how many eggs that comes to, but I'm guessing in total, they take maybe an entire six weeks per year *off* from laying (including all molts, seasonal breaks, occasional "off" days, etc.). That would be... more than 300 eggs a year... maybe they're not laying quite *that* much... but it sure seems like it. When I have four hens out there producing, I have to give away a dozen or more eggs a week in order to have any room in my fridge for anything else.