Will ducks ever lay?

[tubateacher]

Hi,

I purchased 4 ducks in July. 2 welsh harlequins (approx 12 weeks old) and 2 Aylesburys which the farmer told us were currently laying. 12 weeks on and we have not seen 1 egg! We also keep chickens and they are in an enclosed area (electric fence) so there is no where for them to 'hide' the eggs and I have checked!!

I have read so many contrasting articles of when ducks should start laying. Any advice or experience out there to help us?

Thanks in advance

 

[clairalucypipa]

My ducks didn't start laying until they were 6 months old not sure if this also applies to your type of duck. Also whenever my ducks start laying less frequent i often give them a sprinkle of oyster shells to help build the shell. Hope this helps!

 

[tubateacher]

Thanks for the reply. Didn't know if there was an issue or me just being impatient

Will try some oyster shell now and let you know the results

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Hi,

I purchased 4 ducks in July. 2 welsh harlequins (approx 12 weeks old) and 2 Aylesburys which the farmer told us were currently laying. 12 weeks on and we have not seen 1 egg! We also keep chickens and they are in an enclosed area (electric fence) so there is no where for them to 'hide' the eggs and I have checked!!

I have read so many contrasting articles of when ducks should start laying. Any advice or experience out there to help us?

Thanks in advance

Do you mean the WH ducks were 12 weeks when you bought them in July or are 12 weeks now? If you mean now, they're too young to lay. Ducks of that size typically start laying between 4.5 months to 6 months old. Ducks the size of Aylesburys could start later, 5 -7 months.

I have to ask what is going to sound like a dumb question. Are you sure the Aylesburys are ducks and not drakes? I know the farmer said they were laying, but I've seen several other posts in this forum where people were "misinformed" by the seller. I saw one of these occurrences in person just yesterday. The nice man who took the last of the ducks we were rehoming showed me his "purebred Silver Appleyard," which looked suspiciously like a Rouen. I suppose it could have been a cross of SA and Rouen since that would produce ducks that looked far more like Rouens than SA, but it very obviously wasn't a purebred SA. Also, do you know how old the Aylesburys are?

 

[tubateacher]

Hi and thanks for the reply!

The WH ducks were 12 weeks when we bought them. The Aylesburys are ducks (as far as I know) this is going on the raspy quack they make and the fact that they don't have a curly tail feather.

How old they are is unknown! We said we wanted some that were currently laying and the farmer said they had started this year and he was having eggs from them, however there were a number of ducks there all free ranging and a huge pond so how he could keep track I have know idea!

Hopefully these pictures may help!

 

[JadeComputerGal]

All I can really go on since Aylesbury ducks and drakes have the same color plumage is that there's no obvious sex feather in the second pic. However, you mentioned a raspy quack. A quack is usually very distinct, and a raspy or hoarse call indicates a drake. Can you possibly upload a video that includes sound? To make that work well, you'd want to separate the two WHs to make it easy to tell which duck the sound is coming from.

 

[tubateacher]

Thanks again for reply.

How is this for a video with sound. I chased it a little as I know it tends to make more noise then!

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Female

 

[tubateacher]

Excellent, thats a start! Gotta play the waiting game now then!

Thanks

 

[tubateacher]

Guess who got an egg today!!!!