How to tell if your ducks are laying eggs

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How can you tell if your ducks are laying eggs? Which of your ducks are laying eggs and which aren’t? This guide will help you find the answer!

One of these ducks isn’t laying eggs…can you tell which one?

Do you have a happy, healthy flock of backyard ducks? Planning to raise ducklings in the future? Here are three egg-laying scenarios that you’re likely to encounter:

1. You have five female ducks and you find two eggs in your coop. How can you tell which ducks laid the eggs?

2. Your young ducks are now old enough to start laying their fist eggs, but how can you tell for sure?

3. Your older ducks took a long egg laying break during the fall and winter. how do you know if their about to start laying again?

Thankfully, there are some telltale signs that will help you determine when your ducks are about to lay or are currently laying eggs.

Jackson, one of our ducks, trying to sit on a very large, strangely shaped egg. Just kidding. This is actually a jackfruit. We call this piece of duck art — Jackson, one of our Welsh Harlequin ducks, trying to sit on a very large, strangely shaped egg. Just kidding. This is actually a jackfruit. We call this piece of duck art “Jackson on Jackfruit.”

Method 1: Sexy time

First, a laying duck’s (or nearly-laying duck’s) hormones will be elevated to the point that she’s actively mating multiple times per day. No, mating doesn’t require the presence of a drake; females will regularly cavort with each other.

If you’re new to ducks, mating involves a bottom duck and a top duck (or sometimes two top ducks when multiple ducks get themselves really excited). In a pool/pond, one or both participants will begin bobbing their heads up and down to signal interest.

Then, the bottom duck flattens their back and extends their neck out while the top duck hops aboard, grabs the back of the head or neck of the bottom duck with their bill, and begins making thrusting motions. The whole humorously sordid affair can last anywhere from about 10 seconds to a minute, before the ducks re-compose themselves.

So if you see your ducks engaging in this activity, know that they’re mating. Also, know that mating means they’ll soon begin laying eggs, if they’re not already doing so.

Ducks tend to lay in the early morning in a communal nest - unlike chickens who lay in individual nests. However, we've had instances where one of our girls doesn't lay before we let them out in the morning, and will start laying in a secret nest hidden away in the bushes. — Ducks tend to lay in the early morning in a communal nest (unlike chickens who lay in individual nests). However, we’ve had instances where one of our girls doesn’t lay before we let them out in the morning, and will start laying in a “secret” nest hidden away in the bushes.

Method 2: Finger test

Secondly, if your ducks are used to being handled by you, you can utilize what we call the “finger test.” Simply put, you catch them and measure the distance between their pelvic bones with your fingers.

As a duck’s body prepares to lay eggs, their pelvic bones/joints start to loosen up and become wider apart, allowing for the passage of eggs. The opposite is also true: when they’re not laying, the width between their pelvic bones decreases.

So, pick your duck up, place your hand between their pelvic bones and measure with your fingers.

For our smaller breeds (Welsh Harlequin, Buff Orpington, Cayuga) we can measure about 2 fingers across the space between their pelvic bones when our ducks are NOT laying eggs. When they are laying eggs, it’s about 3-4 fingers across their pelvic bones.
For our larger breeds (Pekin, White Layers), it’s about 3-4 fingers across when they’re not laying and about 5 when they are laying.

Obviously, human finger width varies and this is not an exact calculation for all duck breeds. To establish a baseline of what your ducks feel like when they’re NOT laying eggs, it’s important to continue to handle them when they’ve reached adulthood but before their bodies have started preparing to lay (~13 weeks or earlier). That way, you develop a good intuition about the pelvic width of your specific ducks/breeds prior to laying.

Tip: Give your ducks a treat during checkups so they form and maintain positive associations with being handled. Having ducks that are comfortable being handled is important for a wide range of reasons, such as when they have medical problems that you need to treat.

How to tell if your ducks are laying eggs. — Look at those child-bearing hips! This is how to tell whether your duck is laying eggs.

How NOT to tell if your ducks are laying eggs

When we were new duck parents, we used to think we could tell which of our ducks were and were not laying eggs via their body shape. Specifically, we thought our ducks who were not laying were smooth in their undercarriage area, while the ones who were laying had a “little lady lump” in the same area between their rib cages and pelvic bones.

Our hypothesis at the time: when their reproductive system is active, we thought that area of their body swells slightly with follicles about to be released. We realized this was purely anecdotal and we weren’t sure if there was any science behind it — or if the observation would hold up over the years.

Fast forward many years, laying ducks, and laying seasons later… We now realize that you can NOT visually tell from a duck’s body shape whether or not she’s laying eggs. We’ve had “lumpy” girls who aren’t laying and smooth-bellied girls who are laying eggs.

Those lovely lady lumps (click image to enlarge)

More lady lumps (click image to enlarge). No, this is NOT an accurate way to tell if your duck is laying eggs!

That means that short of catching your duck(s) in the act of laying eggs, the “finger test” is the only sure way to know whether your ducks are laying eggs — or which of your ducks are laying eggs!

So now you know how to tell if your ducks are laying or are about to lay eggs! You also know there’s no simple visual way to tell if your ducks are laying or not, so use the finger test if you want to know for sure.

We hope this article was helpful to you duck parents out there!

KIGI,