Informal Survey: Are your ducks laying eggs with little or no shell?

[Tivona]

I have three Golden 300 Hybrid Layers and one Buff. The Buff hasn't started to lay yet but the others lay regularly. The two of the Golden 300's are almost 2 years old and the third is about 9 months.
I have had several (about 5 total) eggs this summer with no or little shell. I get 2 or 3 eggs everyday, averaging almost 3 a day.
I do have 1 egg every day that has an extremely thick shell (layed by the youngest Golden 300) and one almost everyday that has a thin, bumpy on the pointed end shell that cracks easily. The third egg I get has an ordinary shell but the air bubble in it moves to whatever side is up. I have no clue on this but they all seem healthy.
I feed Albers chicken laying pellets and oyster shell separate for them to chose as they wish. They also sneak in to the goose pen every day and eat some of the Payback Waterfowl feed in there. They free range all day in my garden slurping up slugs and worms and muching weeds and whatnot. I was told to mix a bit of the oyster shell into the food when I was getting the no shell or leathery shelled eggs. I'm not sure if that made any difference or if they just got over it naturally.

 

[Amiga]

I mixed oyster shell in with their feed. Looked to me like mostly it got picked around. Probably my imagination!

I put calcium gluconate into their feed for a while, but it seemed like they ate less feed when I did that.

Last year, their first year, we had some eggs pop out early due to them playing hop on top, but aside from that, not so much. This year it's just about every day, one or two.

Maybe an aragonite and dandelion green smoothy . . . .

 

[baby-chicks]

we don't have any problems with our duck eggs, there great, no soft or weak shell.

 

[k0r1nag]

Currently I have 3 pekin females that are 4 years old, one 4 year old campbell lady and her two year old rouen/campbell daughter, and two 3 year old muscovy hens. The muscovies have never laid soft eggs for me (and I have had many more than the few I have now). The pekins and the campbells will lay soft eggs if I do not feed them layer pellets. When I feed an all purpose type of poultry feed I get many more soft shells - even supplemented with oyster shell. My birds mostly nibble around the shell or bill it out onto the ground. My birds are in small grassy pastures and they get rotated to new pastures 3 times a year so have fresh grass, dandelions and all the bugs, slugs and worms they can snag. I feed all of my birds a half and half mix of layer pellets and all purpose poultry and it seems to work well. We like a little extra protein in our feed as we keep Polish and Cochins in with the ducks. And due to their heavy feathering they seem to benefit from a bit more protein. We are also attempting to introduce flax seeds and BOSS into their diet to improve feather quality, but they are currently not sure what to do with it.

Good luck!

 

[tdgill]

picked up a warm soft shelled egg out of the yard just now. Wish I had seen who popped it out. I think I would be more concerned, if I knew it was the same duck everyday.

 

[linen53]

I have all Muscovies. Sky is my only girl who lays soft-shelled eggs. This is her first year laying. She is also biting at her ankles at times. Not sure what that's about. I can't find anything online about it.

All my ducks (6 draklets, 3 ducklets, 2 ducklings and 7 ducks) get all purpose layer pellets every day and cat food every other day for lunch. Niacin twice a week for everyone. Oyster Shell free-choice. All my other girls lay hard-shelled eggs. So whatever is wrong with Sky it isn't the food. She gets the same as everyone else.

I also noticed some comments on molting. Seems my ducks molt in stages too. It's a relief to know that is normal for some ducks!

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
we moved and my new ducks won't be laying until spring, however I've had lots of ducks in the past.

I've had
golden 300s (25)
rouens (25)
runners (12)
mallards (3)
cayugas (6)
khakis (12)
blue swedish (6)
pekin (1)
plus brown and white chinese geese, half a dozen turkeys, guineas, and a dozen or so breeds of chickens
... more or less...

have had 1st, 2nd, 3rd year layers.
have owned ducks for ... maybe 8 or 9 years?

0 soft shelled eggs. have never had one.

we did have a batch of americauna chickens that all layed thin-shelled eggs. they ate the same diet as everyone else, all of the americaunas from that hatchery order layed thin shells.

we feed:
layer crumbles or pellets (chicken feed, not duck)
a small amount of scratch or cracked corn
free range for greens, bugs, etc. during daylight hours
free choice oyster shell
water.

we feed the non-roosting birds at night only, when they return to their pen for the night. we feed enough that there's a little bit left in the morning. water and oyster shell is available all the time they're on range.

we feed some alfalfa in the winter when there's no greenery to be eaten.

this year I'm feeding game bird starter because I have turkeys and guineas as well, but everything else is the same.

 

[Amiga]

It's been great to read the responses, thanks all! Here's an update:

We keep getting soft shelled eggs, though not as many. At this point in time (12/2), we're getting one every two or three days, if that many. We are also getting 0 - 2 eggs in the morning, since it's late autumn and everybody either has molted or is molting within the last two months.

I was wondering if the change from a pellet-type feed to a mix (where you can identify the component parts) may have made it easier for the ducks to pick out the lower calcium bits and leave the calcium supplement behind in the feed pan. Anyone have thoughts on that? Do most of use use pelletized feed? How about those who make their own?

That led me to begin putting layer pellets in with what they have been eating for the past year. We still have the oyster shell free choice out, as always.

Last year, egg production picked up around this time, so we may see an increase in eggs over the next few months. I keep as little light as possible in their area this time of year (they still seem to be afraid of the absolute dark) so they can rest from laying.

No one has had access to the rhubarb for at least six months, so that's eliminated as a possible problem with calcium absorption.

 

[tdgill]

Mine have been laying good shelled eggs for weeks now. Glad we are out of that mess. lol. I encouraged them to eat the oyster shell by tossing a handful of it into their clean pool, and also into a small water bucket. I've noticed them eating the oyster shell out of the other dispenser more often now and occasionally they'll eat the egg shells from breakfast. After the fact, I'm sure they would've straightened out on their own - as their little egg factories got underway, but it WAS frustrating and worrisome for a bit.

I feed layer pellets too, and lately I've been mixing a good scoop of flockraiser in. Mostly for the chickens feed pans though. The ducks seem to prefer the pellets nowadays. I found the calcium absorption topic very interesting as I used to feed lots of kale to my flock. Still would like to hear some input on that.