Ducks not laying

[SidJames]

I have 19 ducks that are just over 2 years old who were great layers but have recently almost given up the ghost.

I'm wondering if there's a issue with the ducks or something is taking them.

They look & sound well with good appetites so can anyone offer advice before the missus sells them on to a local restaurant?

[Speedo1968]

What breed are they ?    Are they local or did you manage to get some from imported stock ?    It's possible they have come to the end of their normal laying period !

Have they suddenly gone broody ?    Have you changed to a different feed ?    Have they been without water for a long period or has water source changed ?     Have you had a stranger visiting the ducks who frightened them ?   Are they loosing feather ?

I worked many years in different countries with ducks - I have seen them on a big company farm in Thailand stop laying

overnight - open houses - the birds got too cold on that one night.    It surprised even me, even with all my past experience, and the ducks did not come back in to lay they just moulted.     The choice was to moult fully and loose production or slaughter.

[SidJames]

I don't know what breed they are Speedo but they appear to be mixed bunch.

3 of them are mostly white feathered, bigger that the others & proper bullies.

Feed hasn't changed & we give them off cuts of fresh greens as well.

They seem settled & act as they always have, it's just that we're getting 2-3 eggs every other day now & there's no real way to know who's laying & who isn't without installing 24hr cctv which would include adopting a duck fetish.

 

[mfd101]

We have a mix of Muscovy (Barbary) and Pekin ducks. Not much laying going on at the moment.

 

The goose pair keep on laying (but it's a slow process). The turkeys and chooks on the other hand are laying & hatching like it's going out of fashion.

 

On past experience most of the chooks will die quite suddenly over several days in mid-year [flu of one kind or another, I assume]. So the sensible thing would be to kill & eat or sell most of the chooks before then each year. However forward planning is not a local strength ...

[Speedo1968]

1 hour ago, SidJames said:

I don't know what breed they are Speedo but they appear to be mixed bunch.

3 of them are mostly white feathered, bigger that the others & proper bullies.

Feed hasn't changed & we give them off cuts of fresh greens as well.

They seem settled & act as they always have, it's just that we're getting 2-3 eggs every other day now & there's no real way to know who's laying & who isn't without installing 24hr cctv which would include adopting a duck fetish.

 

 

Thanks for reply.

Are they loosing feather ( moulting ).

You maybe able to tell if they have eggs by feel.

Larger birds are possibly Pekin, if their bullies are you sure their not males ( um ! ) ?

Have any of them gone "broody". possible if you have bullies in the flock ?

 

Drop egg numbers probably means they are at the end of lay, now 2 years old !    If they are you can "force moult" them to stop them laying altogether, then they will normally come back in to lay after about 3 months.

[Speedo1968]

39 minutes ago, mfd101 said:

We have a mix of Muscovy (Barbary) and Pekin ducks. Not much laying going on at the moment.

 

The goose pair keep on laying (but it's a slow process). The turkeys and chooks on the other hand are laying & hatching like it's going out of fashion.

 

On past experience most of the chooks will die quite suddenly over several days in mid-year [flu of one kind or another, I assume]. So the sensible thing would be to kill & eat or sell most of the chooks before then each year. However forward planning is not a local strength ...

 

Out of curiosity do any of your hens lay blue eggs ?   

 

[SidJames]

No sign of losing feathers.

We did have a few green shells when they feasted on a load of some kind wild spinach that the missus cut from the nearby klong bank.

Didn't affect the flavour & may even have improved it a little although they are/were arroy.

[jak2002003]

1 hour ago, mfd101 said:

We have a mix of Muscovy (Barbary) and Pekin ducks. Not much laying going on at the moment.

 

The goose pair keep on laying (but it's a slow process). The turkeys and chooks on the other hand are laying & hatching like it's going out of fashion.

 

On past experience most of the chooks will die quite suddenly over several days in mid-year [flu of one kind or another, I assume]. So the sensible thing would be to kill & eat or sell most of the chooks before then each year. However forward planning is not a local strength ...

Hi.  My chickens have the same problem as yours do... suddenly dying over a few days / hours... over a few weeks... with no real symptoms.... always affects the young birds that are just started laying eggs.. and the young roosters.  I lost a lot of birds last year like that, and the year before.  Keeping fingers crossed this time. 

 

They are free range, kept clean, and fed good quality poultry feed, and don't have any standing stagnant water to drink and get sick from.. so its a mystery why they get ill. 

 

OP... I think your ducks are just coming up to molting time... this is the time when they stop laying eggs.. nothing to worry about if they still seem healthy otherwise.

 

The other thing could be someone or something stealing the eggs.  I had a neighbor climb over our wall, helping himself to the duck eggs at 5.am most mornings.  When asked him about it.. he denied it, blaming the poor Burmese builders down the street... and he was a farang guy!!!! 

 

 

[mfd101]

24 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

Hi.  My chickens have the same problem as yours do... suddenly dying over a few days / hours... over a few weeks... with no real symptoms.... always affects the young birds that are just started laying eggs.. and the young roosters.  I lost a lot of birds last year like that, and the year before.  Keeping fingers crossed this time. 

 

They are free range, kept clean, and fed good quality poultry feed, and don't have any standing stagnant water to drink and get sick from.. so its a mystery why they get ill. 

 

OP... I think your ducks are just coming up to molting time... this is the time when they stop laying eggs.. nothing to worry about if they still seem healthy otherwise.

 

The other thing could be someone or something stealing the eggs.  I had a neighbor climb over our wall, helping himself to the duck eggs at 5.am most mornings.  When asked him about it.. he denied it, blaming the poor Burmese builders down the street... and he was a farang guy!!!! 

 

 

Yes, a mystery. I was worried about avian flu - which could affect humans - but my family perfectly serene on the subject. They think it's just the onset of monsoon, sudden change in weather etc. Interestingly, it affects only the chooks - not the turkeys, ducks or geese.

 

Ducks very fat & healthy. Army loves them for eating - they send a truck or motor scooter every few days to buy 1 or 2 or 3 for lunch or dinner. Only egg-stealing problem we've had recently was neighbourhood dogs at night - but that was the goose eggs (and we have only 1 gander & 1 goose so that was a bit of a bummer - but 8 eggs currently being sat on, 4 by the goose, 4 by a chook of which 2 hatched a couple of days ago). We keep them locked up now in small cages so the dogs can't get at them.

[Speedo1968]

On 2/12/2017 at 4:14 PM, mfd101 said:

Yes, a mystery. I was worried about avian flu - which could affect humans - but my family perfectly serene on the subject. They think it's just the onset of monsoon, sudden change in weather etc. Interestingly, it affects only the chooks - not the turkeys, ducks or geese.

 

Ducks very fat & healthy. Army loves them for eating - they send a truck or motor scooter every few days to buy 1 or 2 or 3 for lunch or dinner. Only egg-stealing problem we've had recently was neighbourhood dogs at night - but that was the goose eggs (and we have only 1 gander & 1 goose so that was a bit of a bummer - but 8 eggs currently being sat on, 4 by the goose, 4 by a chook of which 2 hatched a couple of days ago). We keep them locked up now in small cages so the dogs can't get at them.

 Could I ask again please if any of your hens lay blue eggs ?    I have seen this in South America and the chicks from these eggs were special.

[mfd101]

55 minutes ago, Speedo1968 said:

 Could I ask again please if any of your hens lay blue eggs ?    I have seen this in South America and the chicks from these eggs were special.

Don't think so.

 

What was the specialty?

[JaseTheBass]

Not sure it helps, but when I worked at a farm in my youth out chickens were culled after 18 months as their egg laying dropped below commercially viable levels.

[cooked]

There are various diseases that can lead to the above mentioned problems. Professional chicken and duck breeders vaccinate the chicks as a matter of routine, if you feel that this is worthwhile you can certainly do this yourself, at least until you feel that the disease has been removed from your birds.

Our ducks are laying like billyo, I am wondering what will happen when they hatch and we have not 17 but about 40 in the small area. Chickens not so good, geese not even thinking about it.

[mfd101]

Some 20 ducklings hatched today - so many I can't count them exactly. Mum & Dad looking pleased. Another 5 or so about to hatch, with adoptive chicken Mum.

 

Meantime 4 goslings growing fast. Moved yesterday from their little cage (where their adoptive turkey Mum hatched 3 of them) to an enclosed part of the duck & goose run, near the pool. Donald, their Dad, parading aggressively up & down outside.  Their natural Mum, Daisy, continues to sit hopefully on her (phantom?) eggs but managed to produce only 1 of the 3.

 

I gather this is quite normal: you find a good turkey or chicken mother & they do the work for everyone.

[Speedo1968]

Ducklings are renowned for bonding with the first thing they see.    It could be a chicken a yellow boot on your foot, anything.

Unfortunately chickens cant swim very well so this may delay your ducklings going to the water, which they normally do on day one if such conditions are available.    They also need to swim to put oil in their feathers, clean their eyes ( a vital part of a ducks immune system ) and nostrils.

 

Be careful the ducks mother does not go broody, especially if the male is becoming aggressive.   

 

If the remaining eggs have been under the mother duck for longer than 30 - 32 days remove the eggs.

[colinneil]

3 hours ago, Speedo1968 said:

 

 

If the remaining eggs have been under the mother duck for longer than 30 - 32 days remove the eggs.

 

If any eggs are from muscovys they take 35 days to hatch, so be careful taking them away to quick.

[Speedo1968]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

If any eggs are from muscovys they take 35 days to hatch, so be careful taking them away to quick.

Thanks for the reminder, guess I worked too long with the Pekin.