What time of year do mature Runner Ducks lay eggs? How often?

[StellaDuck]

I have one duck. Just one. Her name is Stella and she is our little Blue Indian Runner Duck. We got her when she was 24 hours old in June (2010) and she laid her first egg TODAY! I'm so proud of her, all grown up!

I have heard that Runners will lay about 200 eggs a year, but not until they are sexually mature at 3-6 months of age.... AND they have 12 hours of sunlight a day. So why did my little Runner lay her first egg on December 3rd, possibly the darkest gloomiest day in her life? We just built her a brand new duck house that is super warm, and secure and we finished it about a week or 2 ago, could this have something to do with it? We do live in the Bay Area, so we have pretty mild winters compared to other places.

Mostly, I want to know, Is she going to continue to lay from here on out, year round every day or every other day? OR Is she going to lay every day or 2x a day, during sunny months and this was just a fluke. Or something completely different?

Any tips about making a nice laying environment for her would be nice too, thanks everyone, I just joined, this is my first post!

 

[duckyfromoz]

You can actually expect more than 200 eggs if she is a good laying strain. Most of my Runners have started laying at the age of 22- 24 weeks old. But I have had a few earlier than that as well. While day light hours are important for continued egg laying they will still lay without artificial light.

Its hard to say what her laying habits will be like- she may only lay a few more- or keep going all winter. I have wooden boxes lined with pine shavings and hay for my ducks to lay in. They aer pretty good with always laying in a box and I rarely find an egg elsewhere anymore.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

I had a Runner flock which a man came by to buy some ducklings and offered me some astronomical price for my entire flock that I jokingly asked for and he paid and walked away with my entire flock. When we were moving the Runner house, we found 18 beautiful eggs under the house which I lovingly put inside an incubator in the house. All 18 hatched and on December 1st we got our first egg from our new flock of Runners.

 

[Wifezilla]

Runners CAN lay all year round depending on your climate and available sunlight. When I had a runner, she would usually stop laying for a few weeks around Christmas but before February she was back laying again. My Welsh Harlequins are still laying like mad. Even my 2 girls hatched in June are laying.

 

[gofasterstripe]

I have my fingers crossed that my babies will start in the New Year (JAN). They are 16 weeks just now.

 

[StellaDuck]

Thanks everyone! Here they are. 3 Stella Duck eggs on the right, 1 Free range organic chicken egg, and one white Safeway egg.

 

[chicken 101]

i have 4 runner hens that i hatched in the spring why are they not laying

 

[Amiga]

@chicken 101 could you give us a rundown of the details?

Type of shelter
Weather
Food - how much of what, how often
Water - swim, drink, source ( kiddie pool, pond, stream, bucket)
Supplements - oyster shell? Manna Pro? treats?
Any other details - drakes? dogs? how often you interact with them?

 

[vonchef]

 

[vonchef]