# How long do ducks lay?



## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

Was wondering if they were like chickens & only lay good for 2 or 3 years or do they lay longer?

I have a few that are going to be 3 years old I think this spring & summer & their still laying 1 a day. I just put some eggs in the incubator with plans to keep some hen's in case some of the older girls quit laying.


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

Backfourty said:


> Was wondering if they were like chickens & only lay good for 2 or 3 years or do they lay longer?
> 
> I have a few that are going to be 3 years old I think this spring & summer & their still laying 1 a day. I just put some eggs in the incubator with plans to keep some hen's in case some of the older girls quit laying.


I didn't know chickens got old and quit laying! :smack
And 2-3 years old doesn't sound that old to me...is it?


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Breed???

I had a Muscovy that I had for 8 years and she laid 3 clutches the year I had to rehome her.


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

Minelson said:


> I didn't know chickens got old and quit laying! :smack
> And 2-3 years old doesn't sound that old to me...is it?


I never had chickens but my mom does & she always replaces hers every 2 to 3 years so she always has good layers so I was just guessing they must slow down a lot or quit laying after so long.


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

Trout Runners which are show quality & not the production type so I don't get an egg a day from them already & their young, only about every other day. Also Welsh harlequins, Indian runners which are heavy layers for me & 1 White crested that my husband loves so she has to stay & she lays everyday too.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

My grandma would put her 3 to 4 year old hens in the stewpot. She had to have a large production because she sold eggs to many people in the area. She had White Rocks and they did slow down a bit after they were 3 years old. Not enough to warrant replacing them unless you are selling lots of eggs. 

Mom had a black hen (breed unknown) that laid a couple eggs a week for the 10 years Mom had her. Yes she slowed down quite a bit in her older years.


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## mduncn52 (Sep 8, 2007)

According to Gail Damerow in "barnyard in Your Backyard", Mallard derived ducks will lay for 3-5 years. Moscovies for up to 6 years. Your mileage may vary


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Mallard deriviatives are your 'laying' birds which will lay an egg a day. 'scovies probably lay longer because they lay fewer eggs a year. A hen that lays 3 clutches per year probably laid 60 eggs that year. Compare that to a mallard derivative that will lay 280+ eggs. Thus, mallard derivatives will 'burn out' faster. 

I'd say keep birds around till they burn out. Might as well.  

As for chickens - yes, they usually slack off in production after their 2 year old moult. Most birds are replaced at 2 years old. Unless you're a lucky hen who lives at my farm - I think some of ours are like 5-6 years old. lol. Dang ole birds are hard to catch on butchering day!


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

The health and feed quality of the bird makes a difference to. A well fed (but not overfed) bird that is eating a well balanced bird diet will lay better and longer than a bird that is often left hungry or is fed a poor diet. Lighting supposedly makes a difference too. Birds that are supplemented with artificial light supposedly burn out faster than birds on a natural light schedule.


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

Thanks everyone, I wasn't going to get rid of any of my older girls since we don't like to eat them anyways. I did give 1 to an older man that comes in where I work because he had 1 lonely drake, he didn't know what breed & wanted a friend for him. He said she keep all his chickens away from the drake & guards him.

I hope I take good care of them nutrition wise, I feed them a non medicated chicken egg layer food, same one since I got them. Plus food scraps plus they get to free range a few days a week, I make sure they have oyster shell & grit too. Am I forgetting anything they should have besides that?

I don't use artificial light so they will probably be good for a couple more years maybe. I still want to keep a few more hen's from what I am hatching out now.
We really do love our ducks & I have a few customers that buy the eggs.


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## Dusky Beauty (Jan 4, 2012)

Hi Katie, 
Duck hens are born with approx 1500 ova (1 ova= material for one egg). Chickens are born with about 1000. 

A duck bred to lay an egg a day with fewer days off will burn through that egg potential in fewer years than a duck bred to lay her eggs with a greater spread throughout her lifetime. 

Your mileage may vary 

Your nutrition is probably pretty good with kitchen scraps and bugs. 
Something you might think about is getting a BRIGHT solar yard light to stick on the ground in your duck yard-- the nightly insect buffet is GREAT for the protein part of your duck feed bill. 

I also made a switch to a high quality dog food thinned with a little cracked corn(carefully peruse the ingredients for your own sake.) With it my egg birds produce extremely well and don't look at all depleted. My feather condition holds up VERY well.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

YMMV my understanding is A female anything is born with only so many embryos.
push them hard and they will hit that limit sooner.
the way I sum it up is A pullet lays a egg a day because its half the job a hens performing, my hen eggs at 3 and 4 lay eggs at least twice the size of any pullet egg.Some very large yolks. So its not less just a bigger job which takes longer. these girls lay every other day 1 large or XL jumbo egg each as opposed to the tiny egg of their younger counter parts.

All eggs are not created equal neither are breeds.

My campbell ducks where 3 when I got them they are now 4 and did not produce the first year. they have now been giving a egg each per day.I hope to expand them to a flock of 50.


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## Dusky Beauty (Jan 4, 2012)

I started with campbells and they are very satisfactory birds. 

I've decided that Welsh harlequins are best all around for my homesteading duck egg needs, and are flashy enough to be very marketable as live birds, with a slightly larger carcass on my culls for freezer camp-- so I'm converting my flock, albiet slowly. 

I still like a lot of individual birds of my other breeds and I don't just disperse my stock like they're trash, I place them in homes up to my standards of care in groups of birds that are buddies.

Swedish are a flashy dp breed I'm not too impressed with overall. Some of mine laid ok, some still don't pull their weight. The Cayugas I have are surprisingly pretty good participants for a "fancy" bird. I've heard very good things about anconas too. 

I was also very pleased with Metzer's layer hybrids. Excellent layers with very large eggs and a decent size to them for table. My goldens were very healthy. My whites were not quite as vigorous or intelligent. (I lost one of them on her third attempt of drowning herself...) BUT white feathers do make a pretty carcass. 

Whatever bird you prefer will probably work the best for you, but isn't it nice to have so many options? 

I think in the future I will keep my focus on welshies, keep a tiny breeding flock of cayuga (a trio or quad), and try out a couple anconas someday. 
TBH I'm sick enough of duck meat to have zero interest in muscovies, appleyard or pekins! LOL

Think I'll work on marans for meaties! LOL


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

I guess it sounds like my girls will still be laying for awhile.

My Welsh Harlequins are probly my favorite of the breeds we have but I really Love my Trout Runners, the Welsh are much better layers but I've always loved the runners just because there so comical. My Indian runners are as heavy a layer as my Welsh are.


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## Ohiogal (Mar 15, 2007)

I'm curious about the Swedish comment, Dusky Beauty. I have Swedish and they lay like machines. I feed them the same mix the chickens get 19% home mix, and free choice corn, alfalfa hay and they each lay an egg a day. And they lay pretty much year round too. I have a couple hens sitting this year - this is my second third year with ducks, and the hens sitting are less than one year old. I did have a couple Pekins, I found them chatty and like a bully with the other ducks, so I got rid of them. I have no other references for ducks, since I'm new to them - but I'm totally happy with my Swedish!


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## Dusky Beauty (Jan 4, 2012)

Maybe I'm just not lucky with my swede birds Ohiogal.

I have two swedish hens (black) right now that I took from a rescue situation. I had them all last summer and fall and they never laid a thing. They didn't start laying at all until my campbells came of age. 
I had a day where every bird in the pen dropped an egg into one nest box, and the sisters began sitting on them. They incubated just fine but when the ducklings started hatching they were killing them. I had to rescue the rest of the eggs but by then most of them had started hatching and ended up dying in the shell because of lack of humidity. 
I did save one and she's a darling duckling, but those two ducks in particular are just ornery stinkers. 
I ended up with a couple feed store babies of the breed last year, and they were much better ducks, good temperments and laid well. 

In the end, I think the biggest appeal of swedish is their coloring, and that's tough to breed true. Many of the individual ducks are sweet, but they just didn't appeal to me enough to be a "must have" in my homesteading flock, even if I do have 4 of them still. 
Their calm nature makes them excellent pet ducks though. (Except for my two blacks.... ooo they are one step away from the freezer in my eyes-- hen or not!)


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