will my ducks lay

[Miss Lydia]

i m still on egg watch havent seen any breeding the past day or so but it is sup post to be geting cold i will have to keep them locked up in there own coop they wont like that at all i will keep staying on egg watch i m still waiting on the crested white duck eggs to come sup post to be here tursday or friday he had a back up in orders i ll let you guys know when i find a egg or eggs how many duck eggs you guys geting a day

I'm up to 3 now one of my 7 month old laid first this past thurs then yesterday I found 2 more so both my 7months olds are laying none of my older ducks have started yet.

 

[Miss Lydia]

We have Muscovy, Runner, Cayuga & East Indies. All of our older Muscovy (over 2-years-old) are laying, but the younger have not started yet. Our white Muscovy started laying on Christmas and has started about the same time for the last 3 years. The other breeds tend to start laying later in the year.

ButtaCup welcome to BYC, This is the earliest any of my ducks have laid, last year they started end of Jan. but they quit early back in Sept.what part of the USA are you in? always interesting to see if climate makes any difference.

 

[ButtaCup]

I only have 4 ducks laying right now, but they are laying an egg a day. My white Muscovy(Prissy) has 18 eggs right now and she still hasn't started setting. Last year her largest clutch was 27 and she hatched 26 of those. Most Muscovy get very broody and will hatch any egg you put under them once they start setting. Prissy has hatched several clutches of chicken and Cayuga eggs for me and she will raise all of them. That is the great thing about Muscovy, they are wonderful mothers.

 

[ButtaCup]

ButtaCup welcome to BYC, This is the earliest any of my ducks have laid, last year they started end of Jan. but they quit early back in Sept.what part of the USA are you in? always interesting to see if climate makes any difference.

Thanks for the welcome. We are in Oklahoma, but this year I don't think it makes a huge difference as cold as the whole country has been. Our Muscovy always seem to start laying early, the others won't start until March (darn the luck). This year it's our geese that we are waiting to see eggs from, we can't wait.

 

[creaturelife]

i live in Kentucky not very many people with chickens and ducks down here hard to find some one to buy from most of the time when i do i have to drive 2 hours for just 2 duck lol not very fun but worth it in the end i still had no duck eggs today but i got 2 chicken eggs more then i got all winter out of 25 chicken

 

[ButtaCup]

We don't have anyone close with ducks anymore either. The last ducks we bought we had to drive to Kansas to get. We could get some closer I'm sure, but since we are NPIP certified, I try to buy only from other NPIP flocks. My daughter shows her poultry in 4H and we have ended up with many more than we originally planned to, but they are so much fun. We have learned with the chickens that light is the key to getting the to lay in the winter. We only have 4 laying hens, other than her show birds, but we have had 2-3 eggs a day all winter. The show birds don't lay as often and most of what they do lay we have to hatch ourselves.

 

[creaturelife]

I have a light for my chicken but not really doing any good i m going to clean out the nest boxes today that might be the reason why so little egg or my chickens are big time slackers

 

[Miss Lydia]

I only have 4 ducks laying right now, but they are laying an egg a day. My white Muscovy(Prissy) has 18 eggs right now and she still hasn't started setting. Last year her largest clutch was 27 and she hatched 26 of those. Most Muscovy get very broody and will hatch any egg you put under them once they start setting. Prissy has hatched several clutches of chicken and Cayuga eggs for me and she will raise all of them. That is the great thing about Muscovy, they are wonderful mothers.

27 eggs and hatched 26? my goodness that's alot of ducklings, I'm thinking they aren't pets? I only have 15 Muscovy and we're maxed out for now Mine won't even get to hatch any this year although they sure will try. As you can probably tell we don't eat ours and I have a hard time letting them go when hatched out. One of my Scovy girls last year started out brooding my gooses eggs. they ended up not being fertile so I gave her 4 eggs from her sisters and she hatched all 4. They sure do make wonderful brooders and mothers.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have a light for my chicken but not really doing any good i m going to clean out the nest boxes today that might be the reason why so little egg or my chickens are big time slackers

I don't use lights with my hens and though laying was light over the past few months with molting thrown in too, they are beginning to pick up in laying. I just feel lights keep them from having their natural down time over winter when they need to give their bodies a rest, Not saying using light is wrong for ya'll but I just prefer not to use them, but I also have some hens that don't lay anymore so egg laying although a great plus to having chickens isn't top priority with me, I just like their company.

 

[creaturelife]

we dont keep any old hens and try to keep only 2 or 3 roosters but right now i think we have 5 most of the time our hens and roosters we dont have any use for go to the freezer i love fresh chicken every i know hates it not me