Duck eggs - Ask Extension
My pecan/Aylesbury cross is 9 months my runners 4-5 months I feed them layers pellets and veg treats &they are free range in the garden .when wil...
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Duck eggs #377432
Asked November 17, 2016, 9:53 AM EST
My pecan/Aylesbury cross is 9 months my runners 4-5 months I feed them layers pellets and veg treats &they are free range in the garden .when will they lay ? Dark early so have about 8hrs outside each day
County Outside United States
Expert Response
Your Pekin/Aylesbury cross probably won't start laying until spring unless you use artificial light. They would normally start laying around 6 months but the short days are throwing them off. Runners usually start to lay around 4-5 months but again day length is important.
For maximizing production you should try this:
Proper lighting. An increasing day length (January - June) brings sexually mature ducks into egg production and a decreasing day length (July-December) slows or stops their egg production. To prevent this from happening, natural light needs to be supplemented with artificial light in the morning and evening so the laying duck has 17 total hours of light a day. Once the birds are 20-23 weeks of age (smaller breeds at 20 weeks, larger breeds at 23 weeks) you can gradually increase the length of day using artificial light. The easiest way to do this is to have a light on a time clock. Initially add about one hour to the natural day length. Using the time clock, have the lights come on when the sun is setting and turn off in ½ hour. Then have the lights come on ½ hour before sunrise and have it shut off at sunrise. With these two ½ hour periods, you have increased the day one hour and this will stimulate egg production. Then every week you can add another 45 minutes (a little in the morning and a little in the evening) until you have a total of 17 hours of light. For us this means the lights are off at 9:30pm and come back on at 4:30am. This gives them seven hours of darkness which means they will have 17 hours of light.
For maximizing production you should try this:
Proper lighting. An increasing day length (January - June) brings sexually mature ducks into egg production and a decreasing day length (July-December) slows or stops their egg production. To prevent this from happening, natural light needs to be supplemented with artificial light in the morning and evening so the laying duck has 17 total hours of light a day. Once the birds are 20-23 weeks of age (smaller breeds at 20 weeks, larger breeds at 23 weeks) you can gradually increase the length of day using artificial light. The easiest way to do this is to have a light on a time clock. Initially add about one hour to the natural day length. Using the time clock, have the lights come on when the sun is setting and turn off in ½ hour. Then have the lights come on ½ hour before sunrise and have it shut off at sunrise. With these two ½ hour periods, you have increased the day one hour and this will stimulate egg production. Then every week you can add another 45 minutes (a little in the morning and a little in the evening) until you have a total of 17 hours of light. For us this means the lights are off at 9:30pm and come back on at 4:30am. This gives them seven hours of darkness which means they will have 17 hours of light.
