Ducks are the gift that keeps on giving, these animals are great pets, they are friendly to all around them, can produce eggs, and can be used as meat.
If yore raising ducks you’ll likely know that egg production during winter isn’t as frequent, this article explores how to get ducks to lay eggs in winter
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How to get ducks to lay eggs in winter:
Ducks are not like humans, unlike humans ducks don’t produce offspring year-round. These birds prefer to lay eggs between mid-march to the end of July during spring.
Ducks do lay eggs during the colder months but they don’t lay eggs as frequently during these months. If you want your ducks to lay more eggs during the winter this is what to do:
Offer more light:
Lighting is essential if you want your ducks to lay eggs during the wintertime. Many people will tell you that certain ducks will only lay eggs in spring but you can change this with lighting.
Springtime has longer days than winter and thus more light. Ducks respond to this and this triggers them to lay more eggs.
If you want your birds to lay more eggs during winter make sure that the birds get about 14 hours of light in a day. You can achieve this much light on a winter’s day by adding an incandescent light to the bird’s coop.
Keep your ducks light on a timer so that it switches on early in the morning and stays on for 14 hours a day offering light even after the sun sets.
Try to use lights that get lighter slowly, this is more natural and more closely micks to how light from the sun works. Lighting the bird’s coop in this way is recommended over using sudden bright lights.
The light source doesn’t necessarily have to be a heat lamp, a regular incandescent light will work for your birds. If your birds have light year round then the birds can lay eggs year round.
You can expect this light treatment to help the bird lay more eggs a week or so into you using the light treatment.
Offer enough food:
Ducks need to eat well to lay eggs.
Food sources become scarce in the wild during the colder months, this is another signal to ducks that they shouldn’t be laying
If ducks were to lay eggs during the winter months the birds wouldn’t be able to adequately feed their ducklings. If you supply enough food to your birds during winter then this can help them lay more eggs during winter.
Make sure your birds get a well-rounded and healthy diet at all times but especially when you’re wanting the birds to lay eggs. Keep your birds on high-quality duck layer pellets that are high in nutrients vitamins, minerals, and niacin
Also, make sure that the feed is as fresh as possible, and has non-mold or insect damage.
Water:
Water is life for all animals, ducks included. These animals need fresh water at all times. The birds will happily drink stinky water but drinking this type of low-quality water will be bad for the birds and will negatively affect their egg-laying.
The birds also need water to maintain good health and to swim in, these birds can better clean their nares (nostrils) in freshwater over dirty water, cleaning their nares in clean water is good for their health.
Make sure that your birds always have access to clean water at all times, especially during egg laying.
Empty the water bodies that your birds use and replace this dirty water with fresh water every couple of days or when need be.
If your bird’s water bowls start to freeze during the winter time then you may want to use heated water bowls and buckets to keep this from happening.
The correct environment:
Eggs that come from ducks raised in the correct environment are of a higher quality and are delicious.
Giving your ducks an environment where they can forage, exercise, eating grass, weeds, and bugs will enable the birds to produce eggs that are fresh and tasty which is great for you
Also, keep any stressors away from the birds throughout their egg-laying life. Doing this will be good for the ducks and in turn, be good for the eggs and good for you.
Don’t keep drakes:
If you don’t want duck eggs to hatch into ducklings make sure that the drakes don’t have access to the female ducks.
If he has access to her then he will fertilize the eggs and she will produce eggs that turn into ducklings
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other duck related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Did My Duck Die?, Why Do Ducks Keep Coming To My House, Duck Imprinting On Dog, Duck Imprinting On Humans, How To Tell That A Duck Is Stressed, Do Ducks Know If Their Eggs Are Fertile?,