Sick Duck ? Help? I think...or maybe molting?

[70%cocoa]

Well, it's great that Mildred is still improving.

I wouldn't worry about the occasional soft shelled egg. Sometimes you get the odd one because two eggs are released from the ovary close together. Sometimes these are wrapped up in the one shell as a double yolker. Sometimes only one gets a shell and the other comes out soft. If you keep getting soft shelled eggs then that's something to look into. But getting one now and then isn't a big deal.

Remnants in the water bowl, eh? I think we all know that that points to a culprit with webbed feet

 

[newbyduckmom]

The only problem is, this is about the 4th soft egg in a week and a half. We have a warm weather snap, but this is too often in a week with oyster shell available.

 

[70%cocoa]

Yes, that's probably a little too often, if it is from the same bird.

If it's only just started happening, I'd keep an eye on it. You could add a liquid calcium supplement to their water, in case the bird in question is not eating the oyster shell. The only downside of that is that other birds may not like the medicated water and may not drink it in hot weather, so I wouldn't do it in really hot weather.

Adding a Vitamin D supplement (e.g. adding fish oil to a mash) is another option - vitamin D aids calcium absorption in the gut.

 

[Amiga]

If I already wrote this please forgive me, but one of my guesses about this (I have seen it in our flock) is that the best layers can get this way after months of laying. After a good molt and a rest, the problem went away. I feel that it is just their systems misfiring because they need a break.

Right now I am letting anyone who feels broody sit on a nest with one egg in it. I rotate the eggs out so they don't go rotten. No one is in a nonstop broody mode right now, though.

 

[Missy60]

So if your duck is broody just let them sit on eggs? What then they will stop being broody and you start collecting the eggs again? I'm just wondering because I was gone over the week end and Monday George wouldn't come out of her pen she was sitting on eggs they are not fertile. Do they stop laying when they are sitting? This is really confusing to me

 

[Amiga]

Eventually they stop laying for a spell. What I have seen with my girls is that some don't seem to go broody at all, but they do eventually molt, stop laying for a couple of months, then start up again. But I have a few who like to sit. Last summer I gave them wooden eggs. It is hard to know exactly when the broodies stop laying, since everyone contributes to the nest at some point. I would take the real eggs and leave the fake ones (they were kind of little, wooden things). The sitting lasted about a month. Then one day, all done, they walked away from the nest. Within some weeks after that, they molted and after another number of weeks started laying again.

 

[70%cocoa]

You can use golf balls if you can't find actual fake eggs

 

[Missy60]

Oh ok so it's to get them to stop laying for a while and be nice right? This all is really confusing to me. I mean the reason to do it or the purpose, what are the clues you see before you decide to let them sit?

 

[Amiga]

My main reason is based on my guess that sometimes soft eggs are a result of a tired egg laying system that needs a vacation. Crabby ducks don't worry me too much.

Although with my flock, I do watch closely because I know I get crabby when I don't feel well.

They tell me when they want to sit, they just start sitting. So when they make the, "I need to go back to the nest" noise, I walk them back to the nest and close them in. They are in the basement shelter this year, so it does not get too warm and that is one thing I don't have to be concerned about.

So far, no one has gone into full bore broody mode. A few hours here and there seems to make them happy.

 

[newbyduckmom]

I thought when we quit supplementing their light (back in early spring like february) that the light difference would induce molt and vacation from egg laying. But this did not happen. Had supplemented their light over winter. Thinking I won't do that this year. Since they laid anyway! Wouldn't be surprised if my magpie is tired from laying. She the best egg layer in the bunch and has been laying since last August. Mildred and Mocha only since November. Would be happy to give them a break. (we have a stockpile of eggs as it is). If it takes leaving an egg in the nest, we leave a egg in the nest.