When will they begin to lay eggs?

[byounghusband]

We have two Pekin hens. They live with our 12, Oops, now 11 chickens. All are about 21 weeks old and the chickens are laying about 4-5 eggs a day as a group. They all live in the coop and then free range on our property during the day.
Since we are completely NEW at this, we are not sure about the laying cycles of the ducks. Can someone enlighten us?

TIA!!

 

[chickens really]

My Ducks never started laying till between 5 and 8 months old....

 

[HorseLoverEMK]

I have chickens, not sure if they are different from ducks, but mine started laying at about 5 months. Sorry if this doesnt help much :/

 

[chicks are life]

Are they hiding there eggs somewhere during there freranging time?

 

[lomine]

That was going to be my question too. My ducks don't like to lay in the nest box/coop unless I leave them locked in until after 8:30 in the morning. They like to play a perpetual game of egg hunt with me, like every day is Easter.

 

[byounghusband]

They are coming up on 5 months and they may very well be hiding them, if they are laying.. The chickens do lay in other places at times, but I just introduced the nesting boxes a week ago. We closed them all up in the coop/yard (12x12 enclosure) for about 4 days. Chickens are using the nest boxes and corners of the coop behind the feed storage bin as laying spots.

I haven't seen any eggs that are not brown or blue yet, so I don't think any eggs I have discovered are from the ducks.

With the chickens, they begin to squat prior to laying and sing an "egg song" when they do. Do ducks show signs before they start laying like the chix do?

 

[chickens really]

No...When my young Duck Hens begin to lay I find eggs in the pool..On the ground in the yard...They get better with age but usually at first they are just there...

 

[lomine]

Sometimes they will get a little plumper in the area between their legs and their tails (ventral region). But sometimes it's just fat storage so that's not a very reliable sign.

 

[buggymuffin]

They can lay anytime after 20 weeks, but our first khakis hit 20 weeks in September and didn't start laying until around Christmas that year.