Aaah! The joy of ducks! It's such a rollercoaster. I struggle to find customers to sell duck eggs to, especially as they are laying in the late winter. When I finally find a good stream of customers and more eggs are being sold than going into the incubator, then the ladies stop laying. I think the impetus to stop laying this year had to do with one hen who went broody in the barn. So we left her there, excited about the prospect of her hatching her own ducklings.
Soon she was joined by another, and another, and another, adn eventually there were 7 ducks sitting on eggs in the barn. This turned out to not be good. First, a bird sitting on a nest is typically NOT laying more eggs. Second, 7 in close proximity, and they were too competitive, kicking eggs out of each others' nests and ruining the entire batch of eggs. Only 2 ducklings hatched, and they did not survive. So I won't be doing that again. But effectively, they all stopped laying and have not kicked back in after that.
An alternative theory is that they are laying, but I don't know where!
So now my duck egg customers have no had eggs for a while. And are asking when we will again. I wish I knew for sure, but fall sure seems like the best bet.
I pulled some data. I have not kept records of ducks laying eggs as well as I have with chickens. So I looked at sales data instead. Sales data is not going to show anything but the eggs I sell. I incubate a LOT of eggs in the spring. I also donate, and use for my own use when they are not selling, so this is misleading, but it does show a bit of a pattern. So here it is... duck egg sales from the last 2 years...
