mallard ducks

[cottagechick]

I have been looking online trying to decide what breed of duck to buy...and some of the ranges for egg laying really throw me...for example on different sites I have seen Mallards listed as laying 10-20, 60-120 or 100-140 eggs a year...If I didn't allow them to hatch, how many eggs could I REASONABLY expect a Mallard to lay?

 

[seminolewind]

Gosh, I never realized there were different kinds of ducks!

 

[dumb_cluck]

Well, mallards do fly and you will be heart broken when they don't come back.

If you want eggs, get a few female Welsh Harlequins. They lay nice big white eggs and they lay almost year around. (You don't need any drake if you do not want the eggs fertile for hatching.)

 

[Oregon Blues]

My book says 25-100.

A true mallard is a bantam duck. They are quite small and none of the bantams are prolific layers. But if you are counting eggs from hatchery "mallards" that are medium sized ducks that just happen to be gray in color, you are dealing with a mystery pedigree, which could contain several other breeds in the background, so you are going to get a different egg count, depending upon what the breeding is behind the duck.

Information given for any breed, including egg counts, is given for purebreds. If you have a mixed breed, the information is unlikely to be valid.

 

[cottagechick]

Gosh, I never realized there were different kinds of ducks!

Yep...as far as I can tell not as many as chickens...but I have seen about a dozen or so breeds on most web sites...I am trying really hard to control my chicken math and not go overboard on duck math...

 

[cottagechick]

My book says 25-100.

A true mallard is a bantam duck. They are quite small and none of the bantams are prolific layers. But if you are counting eggs from hatchery "mallards" that are medium sized ducks that just happen to be gray in color, you are dealing with a mystery pedigree, which could contain several other breeds in the background, so you are going to get a different egg count, depending upon what the breeding is behind the duck.

Information given for any breed, including egg counts, is given for purebreds. If you have a mixed breed, the information is unlikely to be valid.

So should I assume that if I see a hatchery with a breed listing egg production and then another hatchery with the same breed with a different egg production than that is the egg production for their strain and not a number they pulled out of the air???? I am torn because I could get ten straight run from Holderreads and sell off the ones I don't want...but what I really want to do is start off with to or three ducks with at least two females. I could get a trio but I want to start with day olds....and the only way I can seem to get sexed day olds is from a hatchery...I am thinking that I could order ten from a hatchery and two of them sexed. I would keep three...That way I know which ones I am keeping and sell off the rest...The ducks listed as mallards on these sites list their weight as around two pounds...so they don't seem that large to me...anyway, I am still trying to decide what breed amoung about five breeds....

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

My advice on the mallards is don't get them if you want good egg production. Mine quit laying in October and haven't picked up again. When they do lay it's about 2 eggs every 3 days. And they're eggs are the same size or a little bigger than chickens. Their laying is Seasonal based.

 

[Kevin565]

My mallard hen laid about 40 eggs last year.

 

[DB_Tex]

If you want ducks that lay as many and MORE eggs than chickens you want to look at Welsh Harlequins, Khaki Campbells, Runners (fewer eggs than campbell derivatives but if you love the wine bottle look and don't care about a table duck), or if you want a souped up master layer you can look at Metzers golden 300s or white layer hybrids-- They have the added bonus of being a medium sized hybrid duck and the culls are decent table birds, comparable to swedish/rouen/buff orp ducks in carcass size.

If you don't necessarily want or need an egg per day you have a lot more dual purpose options for ducks. There's even a couple ways to go if you want a great meat duck with a decent giant egg layer capacity.

 

[cottagechick]

If you want ducks that lay as many and MORE eggs than chickens you want to look at Welsh Harlequins, Khaki Campbells, Runners (fewer eggs than campbell derivatives but if you love the wine bottle look and don't care about a table duck), or if you want a souped up master layer you can look at Metzers golden 300s or white layer hybrids-- They have the added bonus of being a medium sized hybrid duck and the culls are decent table birds, comparable to swedish/rouen/buff orp ducks in carcass size.

If you don't necessarily want or need an egg per day you have a lot more dual purpose options for ducks. There's even a couple ways to go if you want a great meat duck with a decent giant egg layer capacity.

Wow! You are the experts on ducks...how many eggs do you get a year with all of those girls..?