There are so many factors, as folks have already written. My Runners and Buffs are mostly resting from laying right now. I was just thinking about it, and wondering if giving them more greens as well as a little bump of protein in addition to layer ration and oyster shell free choice would work. It's just starting to break spring here now, and the weather has been all over the place. Quite warm for the first part of winter, then about a month of winter temperatures with little precipitation, now a very warm week but who knows what's next? The last two days the flock has seemed a little edgy. I did a complete clean out of their pen (which I do anyway every ten days or so), which did not seem to make much difference.
They got a little rattled yesterday, when the neighbor's dog came over for a visit. He was a gentleman, stayed a good fifteen feet away, but that was still way to close for the ducks' liking. And hawks have been around quite a bit. A couple of weeks ago a hawk took a squirrel extremely close to the duck pen, perhaps right off the top of the pen.
For me, since the ducks all seem otherwise healthy, I am fine with them taking a little more time off from laying much. I feel they can get run down if they don't rest. I want them for the long haul, as they eat slugs and pests and make fertilizer, regardless of the egg laying.
Hope your ducks are healthy and just waiting a little bit before beginning to lay again.
They got a little rattled yesterday, when the neighbor's dog came over for a visit. He was a gentleman, stayed a good fifteen feet away, but that was still way to close for the ducks' liking. And hawks have been around quite a bit. A couple of weeks ago a hawk took a squirrel extremely close to the duck pen, perhaps right off the top of the pen.
For me, since the ducks all seem otherwise healthy, I am fine with them taking a little more time off from laying much. I feel they can get run down if they don't rest. I want them for the long haul, as they eat slugs and pests and make fertilizer, regardless of the egg laying.
Hope your ducks are healthy and just waiting a little bit before beginning to lay again.
