My ducks lay a good egg and a soft egg daily, what is causing this?

[goodheart101]

My girl ducks lay a great looking egg in the morning then in the late afternoon, or early evening they lay a soft squishy egg. Why? How many eggs a day should they be laying. Sometimes between my two girl ducks I was getting up to 5 good hard eggs, now I get one good one and one squishy soft egg per duck. any ideas? anyone? thank you.

 

[HiddenHill Heretic]

Very rare for poultry to lay more than 1 egg per day without unnatural hormonal, light and forced feed.

 

[tia]

Are you giving them oyster shell? The soft egg may be do to lack of calcium. I give my ducks a little oyster shell in their food once a day.

 

[Snakeman]

I believe it was a Holderreads guide that I was reading(I could be wrong) but it said that oyster shell should be given free choice.

Now I'll have to look that up.

 

[Amiga]

Have they just started laying this year? I have eleven runners, and for the first couple of months, as everyone was getting on board, here is what I saw:

We would get good shelled eggs in the morning from those laying.

It was mating season, and they were hopping on top of each other, right and left. At first once a week, then twice, then a few times (as more began laying), I would find shellless eggs in the day yard, often near their swim pans.

Took me several days to figure it out, but the soft shelled or no shelled eggs were popping out, usually, in the afternoon, after some mating displays (they are all girls). So, I figure that as their little bodies are developing, there is a tendency for the beginnings of the next egg to get shaken loose with all that pressure from another duck on top.

The runners are now about six months old, and we haven't had more than one no-shelled egg in about a month.

They get oyster shell free choice, about a third of their pellets are layer pellets, and they get to range a bit in the garden. Their feathers are glorious, they are energetic and seem pretty well adjusted, especially since runners have a reputation of being high strung. These girls seem to me to be the border collies of the domestic duck world.

 

[Wifezilla]

When they first start laying you can get weird eggs. It takes them a while to get the kinks worked out of the egg factory

And yes, they need free choice oyster. I leave a shallow rubber dish filled with it in their pen. They munch on it as needed.

 

[goodheart101]

I give them a layer feed, plus I give them spinach twice a day. I was thinking maybe they could be getting too much calcium because spinach is high in calcium. This morning the two ducks laid 3 eggs, before 10 am. The other morning the 2 girls laid 5 good eggs. Yesterday they both laid a good egg and a soft egg. I am worried they are laying too many eggs. For almost two weeks they both just laid one good egg a piece. Now it is all crazy. They are outside, in a secure deck area. So the only light they get is natural. They eat layers feed, and lots of herbs and spinach and occassional bread. They do not have allot of access to many bugs, but they do have access to dirt. any ideas? anyone?

 

[annageckos]

Spinach is high in calcium. But it also has oxalates that block the absorption of calcium. I know that it is not recommended for reptiles for that reason. As an occasional treat it is not bad.

 

[Surehatch]

Quote:
calcium sounds like a probable cause

 

[duckluv]

You shouldn't mix the oyster shell in with the food because it's bad for Drakes, or so I've heard. Still, it would be better to give it on the side. Better safe then sorry!