Is My Khaki Campbell Stressed?

[StorminStang06]

I moved last fall and brought my small flock with me. I keep three bantam chickens and two khaki campbell ducks. Catching the ducks to move them was very stressful on them and me. One of them stopped laying altogether and the other continued to lay sporadically (maybe about three eggs per week). I was very surprised that she was laying at all, but grateful that she kept me in eggs for most of the winter! She stopped laying in February or March. A few weeks ago, one of them started laying, but she is not laying daily like she used to. My second girl is not laying. They were kept in a shed over the winter since the move because we were headed into the winter months and just finally finished their coop/run.

My chickens are laying well and none of my birds are acting out of their norm. Any ideas why my ducks are slow this year? Is it the stress of the move, or the stress of recent changes with the coop/run? My ducks are three years old.

 

[TLWR]

Some times my ducks just take extended leaves of absence from laying eggs. For months at a time. I have 4 ducks and had very few duck eggs last fall until this spring. Now they are coming out my ears!

If you moved last fall, she should be used to the new digs now and her new normal.

 

[terrikt52]

I moved last fall and brought my small flock with me. I keep three bantam chickens and two khaki campbell ducks. Catching the ducks to move them was very stressful on them and me. One of them stopped laying altogether and the other continued to lay sporadically (maybe about three eggs per week). I was very surprised that she was laying at all, but grateful that she kept me in eggs for most of the winter! She stopped laying in February or March. A few weeks ago, one of them started laying, but she is not laying daily like she used to. My second girl is not laying. They were kept in a shed over the winter since the move because we were headed into the winter months and just finally finished their coop/run.

My chickens are laying well and none of my birds are acting out of their norm. Any ideas why my ducks are slow this year? Is it the stress of the move, or the stress of recent changes with the coop/run? My ducks are three years old. 

 

[Amiga]

Probably stress, and they are getting older - my Runners' laying rhythms change each year.

I would make sure they are getting good quality food, a tiny bit of extra protein, maybe add some poultry vitamins with electrolytes and probiotics to their water once a week for a month or two, just to give them a boost.

As a safeguard, consider taking a fecal sample to the vet to check for parasites.

 

[LovesAGoodYolk]

how much light are they getting each day? do they have water for bathing?

 

[StorminStang06]

Thanks for your response. As basic as it seems, I think I overlooked this. You may have hit the nail on the head.

How much light they are getting varies. I have them in a shed with one window in the back as their coop. Until about two weeks ago, they were in the shed continuously since early November. I did not want to do that to them, but I had no help in getting the run up besides my poor father who needs bilateral knee surgery. We didn't do it last fall because my house needed more immediate attention than the coop did and then the ground froze. Here it has been unusually rainy for this time of year, and I don't want the run to be a muddy mess, so all birds were inside for those days. The rain also delayed the run being set up.

My hose no longer reaches out to the run, so I'll have to get another one, but in the meantime, I'm hauling water to their kiddie pool now that they are outside. They do not have bathing water in the shed.

Thanks for pointing these things out. Maybe I just need to give them some more time.

 

[StorminStang06]

I give them Dumor layer pellets, which I'm not a total fan of, and occasionally I find organic feed at the feed store. I actually just bought a bag of organic feed, so they'll be getting that when the Dumor bag is gone. Nowadays, they are foraging a lot, too. I didn't think of vitamins/probiotics/electrolytes. I'll have to look into that when I go back to the feed store. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Amiga]

Oh, duckies. They can keep us guessing!