my first egg !

[claudiaosk]

Hi all again, its been a while and in the meantime my 4 ducklings Berta, Alfons, Schnulli and Dolly the quak) have become teenagers or - even - adults. I think I am certain that the four of them are females even though there is only one who quaks constantly, the others are fairly quiet. No drake feathers to be seen. Every morning there is heaps of activity in the pond, where the white one (Berta) always ends up under water, everyone has a go and I assume its female (?) hormones, or else I have everything wrong (I have read that its quite normal behaviour expecially if no drake is present) --
They hatched on 9th June so are only about 5 months old and I didnt expect any eggs at all until early next year but VIOLA found this one just then (see below). All in good health, eating heaps and roaming the garden all day. Sleeping in the greenhouse during this winter where they have a lot of space and Xmas lights until about 10 pm (here in Iceland it gets dark around 4 pm and light at only 9 am, so its a very long time for them to be in total darkness.... ). As its really cold this evening I put up a heating lamp, but I am aware that this is just overprotection, noone sits even close to it!
Just wondering: do ducks usually lay eggs in the morning? Otherwise I see myself roaming the garden looking for stray ones all day....

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

can you post a close up of each? they look female to me

 

[claudiaosk]

Thanks for replying!

Here is a foto I took about 6 weeks ago (havent got any closeups from now):

You see the Peking Berta - a girl for sure. She is docile, the smallest doesnt quak a lot. Seems to be doing her own thing all the time and usually is the last to realise something is happening, but she isnt been bullied much by the others, except for whats happening in the water....

Then Dolly the white/black one she is quak queen - doesent stop. Very squittish, from day one.

Then there are 2 ?Mallards cross, we arent sure. The one with the green beak, Schnully, is smallish, came out last, and has been, from day one, a stress bomb, never lets you close. Manages to turn food dishes and water bowls upside down whenever given a chance. schnully is the one who had been picking at me when s/he was younger.

Then there is Alfons with the blue beak (is it beak in english?), I always thought he is a boy, bigger than the other ones, but no drake feather. Doesnt talk much and comes close and loves being patted and stroked.

They are always together and if one is separated one can hear it.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

yeah those are all hens

 

[claudiaosk]

can I attach a video? doesnt seem to work... Its mp4, not accepted.

 

[claudiaosk]

how do you tell apart from the missing drake curl?

 

[DucksOhio]

Those are really beautiful duckies!

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

how do you tell apart from the missing drake curl?

coloring

 

[416bigbore]

Back to your OP, first eggs are awesome, Congrats!

Ours are usually done laying by 10:00am in their coop on the straw thank goodness.

 

[corriemartin]

Ours have always laid by the time we let them out at 7:30 or 8:00. I guess when they first started laying, there'd be a weird stray shell-less egg laid outside on the ground later in the day, but once they got going, they were all buried in the nest early.