Please Help With My Mascovy!

[firebug011802]

I have had it for about a year now and was told that it was a female, but it has NEVER layed an egg! Is there something wrong with it? I honestly don't know much about ducks. Any help would be very appreciated!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I have had it for about a year now and was told that it was a female, but it has NEVER layed an egg! Is there something wrong with it? I honestly don't know much about ducks. Any help would be very appreciated!

Hi and

! That looks like a pretty Muscovy duck - not drake - to me.

Sometimes, it can be a timing issue - my spring hatch ducks didn't begin laying until the weather warmed up and there was more daylight, so some didn't start for 9+ months. You've said she's over a year old, so I can't help but wonder if she could be hiding her eggs. Does she free range? If she's healthy, I would suspect that she's laying her eggs somewhere concealed - I have girls that will bury eggs so that you have to dig down in the nest box to find them (just looking at the nest box, it appears empty). I've also had ducks that would lay in brush piles and in the barn. It's a daily hunt to make sure someone hasn't dropped a stray egg someplace they're not supposed to. lol

 

[firebug011802]

I say she is a year old, i got her sometime at the end of last year and she wasn't a baby then. She is kept in a pen with a couple of my hens that grew up together. I have checked the nesting box and everything. just recently she started going in and laying in the nesting box, so i figured she was about to lay an egg. but after a couple days of her going in and out, she still hasn't layed.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I say she is a year old, i got her sometime at the end of last year and she wasn't a baby then. She is kept in a pen with a couple of my hens that grew up together. I have checked the nesting box and everything. just recently she started going in and laying in the nesting box, so i figured she was about to lay an egg. but after a couple days of her going in and out, she still hasn't layed.

She might just be checking the box out for now...but her behavior suggests that she may start laying soon. Hang in there!

 

[firebug011802]

She might just be checking the box out for now...but her behavior suggests that she may start laying soon. Hang in there!

Thank you!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Thank you! 

YVW. Muscovy eggs are so worth the wait.

 

[jofanx]

YVW. Muscovy eggs are so worth the wait.

They really, really are. I have 3 girls and a boy, two of my girls are laying (they are almost 2 years old) and one of them is about a year old but hasn't started. Here was my egg this morning. Yowza on the egg to yolk ratio. Absolutely delicious.

 

[Amiga]

What is her diet? You might try boosting her nutrition for a month or so. Make sure she is getting plenty of calcium, Vitamin D, fresh greens (not much spinach)... I give my ducks a couple of teaspoons of turmeric per four cups of food as a natural anti inflammatory for their egg laying systems. A poultry vitamin powder in her water once a week, some crushed oyster shell free choice or once a week about 120 mg of calcium citrate in her food, and some salad (could be dandelion greens, chickweed, stuff that can be pulled from the garden as long as you don't use poiisons).