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.
