Duck who Had Niacin Deficiency Won't Lay

[saving grace]

Hello! I've been meaning to make a thread about this for a while. My Khaki Campbell duck, who is a little over a year old now, still hasn't started laying. When she was still a duckling (can't remember how old) she got niacin deficiency, even though I was supplementing them with nutritionial yeast in the correct amounts. She recovered after a little while, and while she was growing up was half the size of her siblings. She's the same size as her sister now, though her legs are a little shorter.

She seems completely normal, except for the fact that she shows no sign of ever laying. At this point I doubt she ever will, but I am wondering if anyone has had this experience before, and if there is anything I can do.

She has recently, to my surprise, started showing some broody behavior. She has a nest in the corner of the coop that she sits on multiple times throughout the day. I gave her a few golf balls and she got them all cozy in the pine shavings. She doesn't sit on them for long periods of time, but she wasn't showing any of this behaviour before.

 

[Miss Lydia]

This could also mean she is getting ready to lay.

 

[saving grace]

This could also mean she is getting ready to lay.

I really hope so! She's been doing this for about a week now, so I guess we'll see!

 

[Miss Lydia]

make sure she has oyster shells or some other type of calcium available

 

[saving grace]

So, the duck I was talking about before is still nesting throughout the day (though less than before) and still no eggs. She has calcium available.

Her sister, though, is now acting strange as well. I just found her in a nesting box and she started madly hissing at me and puffing up. I have never seen my ducks do this before, so this is new. She sounds broody, but the nest she's sitting on has some golf balls in it but she isn't even sitting on them. What's going on???

Oh also, other than the hissing she doesn't seem aggressive, just very scared of me.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sure sounds like broody behavior to me.

 

[saving grace]

Sure sounds like broody behavior to me.

She's off the nest now and acting normal. For all I know she's been doing this for a little while, since I rarely ever go out at the time of day when I caught her on the nest.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hopefully since they are spending time in the nest means eggs will be coming soon. Are they on layer with oyster shell available.

 

[saving grace]

Hopefully since they are spending time in the nest means eggs will be coming soon. Are they on layer with oyster shell available.

The one who's acting broody today is the one who's been laying for months. The ducks eat a mix of starters and growers, and have a calcium source (not oysters, something else for poultry that I can't recall the name of. We only got it since the feed stores were completely sold out of oyster shells.)

 

[Miss Lydia]

Probably the same stuff I had to get for mine when there wasn't any oyster shell available.

I haven't heard of a niacin deficiency causing a duck not to lay after they have gotten over it. But anything is possible.