Sorting layers and non layers

[allergymama]

This may sound like a silly question but our flock is of mixed age and I am not exactly sure how to tell who is laying and who is not anymore. What are your experiences with older laying ducks? Specifically our welsh harlequins seem to have quit over the summer (4 hens, maybe 1 or 2 eggs/week total). They are only 27 months old. Is this normal for WH? The pekin and Rouen are laying occasional eggs at 3.5 years-ish. Because everyone beds down together and the eggs are laid by the time the sun is up and we let them out we aren't sure who is laying and who is not. (Pekin we can tell cuz they are huge. Mutts lay blue eggs, so theirs are obvious also. Rouen likes to climb the 4' fence every day and lay hers in a nest and make us play Easter egg hunt on our 10 acres.)

Any ideas? I feel like I could separate them but wouldn't know whether the stress of being away from their sister wives might make them take a hiatus from laying anyway.

 

[Miss Lydia]

This may sound like a silly question but our flock is of mixed age and I am not exactly sure how to tell who is laying and who is not anymore. What are your experiences with older laying ducks? Specifically our welsh harlequins seem to have quit over the summer (4 hens, maybe 1 or 2 eggs/week total). They are only 27 months old. Is this normal for WH? The pekin and Rouen are laying occasional eggs at 3.5 years-ish. Because everyone beds down together and the eggs are laid by the time the sun is up and we let them out we aren't sure who is laying and who is not. (Pekin we can tell cuz they are huge. Mutts lay blue eggs, so theirs are obvious also. Rouen likes to climb the 4' fence every day and lay hers in a nest and make us play Easter egg hunt on our 10 acres.)

Any ideas? I feel like I could separate them but wouldn't know whether the stress of being away from their sister wives might make them take a hiatus from laying anyway.

Try painting food color on the vent area I understand you'll get colored eggs and know just who is laying by the color matching the ducks butt.

 

[allergymama]

Thank you. That's kind of a cool idea!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thank you. That's kind of a cool idea!

I saw some goose eggs after and they were pretty.

 

[cyriuskee]

I read a blog post on Metzer's site that may help you.
http://metzerfarms.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-do-i-know-which-of-my-ducks-are.html?m=1