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ducks and geese

Double yolk duck eggs

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posted 2 years ago

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I’m new to this forum but glad to find it! I looked around to see if there were any other posts about this and couldn’t find any, but if I’m mistaken, please point me in the right direction.

I’ve raised chickens and ducks for years. Barnyard mix for chicks, but Muscovys and Pekins on the duck front. I really like my Muscovy hens and the current flock of 4 I’ve had for almost 5 years. They live with three Pekins - 1 drake and 2 hens. There are also 4Here in the PNW, my ducks lay from about March to October, sporadically in spring and fall but very reliably during the summer months. The family and I LOVE duck eggs and eat them almost every day when we have them.

My ducks have started laying again since our days are getting longer. The Muscovy hens started laying a bit later than the Pekins, but in the last 3 weeks I’ve averaged a double-yolk Muscovy egg almost every other day. There are times when I’ve gotten one 3 or 4 days in a row. I’d seen the occasional 2-yolk chicken egg and the kids and I always marveled at them as we scrambled them up. But this has been crazy. The eggs are half again as large as the other duck eggs as well and my mind has wondered about my poor girls backend!

Should I be worried? Have others seen this? Are these from 1 hen or are they all participating in the 2-yolk activity? I’m not really doing anything different though I did recently change them from crumble to pellet feed as my chickens seem to respond well to me mixing it up occasionally. But the ducks are all such foragers I wouldn’t think it would matter as much with them. Until this year I’ve NEVER had a 2-yolk duck egg and I’m on my 10th year with ducks. I can ALWAYS tell which the double yolkers are since they are big. Wonder what I could sell a dozen double-yolk duck eggs for…..

Would love any insights!

Christopher Shepherd

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posted 2 years ago

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Welcome to permies Pete! I don't have any experience with ducks, but our 2 year old chickens lay huge eggs. We get many double yolkers. Usually our hens are about a half pound larger the second year too. We don't seem to have any problems with the hens health.

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Jay Angler

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posted 2 years ago

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It's certainly not something to be encouraged, as you're more likely to get an egg-bound girl if they try to lay such a big egg. That said, there may be nothing you can do about it either.

Essentially, the ovary is dropping two ovum close together, while the rest of the system is on its usual schedule. Unless there's some sort of estrogen mimic plant or food the duck is getting into, it's probably just nature doing its thing.

Do you have any way to identify which bird is doing it? She might need extra nutrients to manage, as yolks have a lot of micronutrients in them.

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Rick English

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posted 2 years ago

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I second the concern over large eggs and egg binding. Did you see any signs of blood or extra goop on the large eggs? If so, you might want to make a vent check.

I am still very much learning with our mixed flock, but have now twice experienced a meat breed (like Pekin or Appleyard) when kept with more general or egg laying breeds, eats more than their share of food, leading to large eggs and prolapsed vents. We tried feeding less to the entire flock, but the meat breeds just ate almost all the food.

We were only able to get the egg size down by separating the meat breeds from the rest. Keep the in mind ducks are very social, and dislike being alone. A solo duck is often very stressed.

We lost both meat breed ducks, and now I am very careful to keep breeds that are more compatible from a feed standpoint.

There is probably a better answer, but just sharing my experience.

Sarah Elizabeth

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posted 2 years ago

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Hi Ben, Great first post!

I've only had experience with double yolks with chickens. This always happened with young birds in the first three of four months of laying.

The double-yolkers were huge. My average egg size at the time was 53 grams and the double-yolkers were between 94 grams and 98 grams.

It was quite fun but as others have pointed out you can get an egg-bound chicken. The way we solved this was to increase the amount of calcium the chickens were getting by adding oyster shell to their diet. This is fed free choice in a separate dish and it goes fast.

The number of eggs then increased but they were all of normal size. This is only from my experience but young birds seem to need extra calcium when they start laying and also birds in general need extra calcium if you live in an area where there is not in the local soils.

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Cécile Stelzer Johnson

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posted 2 years ago

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Well, Pete, I would start by saying that I have never raised a duck, only chickens.
But I too have had a number of double yolk eggs, in young laying hens [which is quite normal as they do not really 'know' what they are doing]. My more mature layers also did, but the trait seemed to be attached to the specific bird although it is hard to pinpoint in a flock of 36.
They seem to appear out of the blue, without any reason like diet, which would make sense. During their molt, I added floating pond catfish food, which has way more protein. It seems to get them out of the molt faster and in a cold September in Wisconsin, seeing a few girls missing feathers, I decided to give them more protein:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/sportsmans-choice-catfish-feed-1077725?store=194&cid=Shopping-Google-Organic_Feed-Product-1077725&cid=Shopping-Google-LOB-Local_Feed&utm_medium=Google&utm_source=Shopping&utm_campaign=LOB&utm_content=Local_Feed&gclid=CjwKCAiAprGRBhBgEiwANJEY7CaKfZMEABa2BnJSGFFNC117dU8KexelABgcx3ZNwKzIUEq7cuMMpxoCeDMQAvD_BwE
This contain 32% protein, so much more than even a laying chicken would normally take [16%-20%]. I did feed them their regular feed alongside, just in case they would not like it. It has a strong fish smell since it is essentially fish meal. They took to it after a while.
I stopped once they were all feathered.
So at least in chickens, at first it is only their young age. Later, it seems to be the specific bird.
The double yolks seem to appear about a week after that, but I could not tell that this would be the reason for sure.
[I hope not to gross you out, but in women their first periods seem to be very irregular. As they mature they become regular. Some bleed heavily, others very little. Although women are very different from birds, there is something similar about the maturity of the organism and the release of eggs. In the end of egg production in both species, things again become more erratic].
You got me interested in double yolkier chickens and it seems that those bred for laying seem more prone to lay double yolk eggs. I'm not particularly interested in making chicken lay this way as indeed, some may get egg-bound and die. I did have one such hen. I recall seeing her in a nest box later at night but didn't think anything of it. She was dead in the morning and all the chickens were eating her, starting with the vent area. I wanted to puke.
Since you are talking about ducks, I found this interesting article about Gaoyou ducks that might help: It seems that double yolk eggs represent good fortune, and in China, they are *encouraging* the practice. I figured if we know how, this might give us a clue to encourage or prevent the phenomenon.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/double-yolk-duck-eggs-gaoyou-china-cmd/index.html
So it seems that by breeding them carefully, they can select ducks that lay double yolk eggs, enough to make an expensive specialty out of it.
Curious about the breed, I stumbled on this article, indicating that the feed may also contribute. In this abstract, the first paragraph gives you a recipe of sorts:
https://patents.google.com/patent/CN102524585A/en
and here is a picture of the miracle flock:
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-04/16/c_138982133.htm
Do they look like yours?
I tried to find the specific *breed* of duck, but there I was not successful, leading me to think that the Gaoyou duck is actually the name of the breed.
Shaoxing ducks also bred for laying may be related, and if you ever have a plague of locusts:
https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/status/1232840443483680769

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Kit Collins

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posted 2 years ago

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I've never raised chickens or ducks, but roughly 40 years ago my family bought a commercial 12-pack carton of chicken eggs from a major supermarket. Most of the eggs in that particular carton had double or even triple yolks. Very doubtful they were from one bird, so a lot of birds on the egg farm must have been doing this at the same time. That would argue for diet or environment (such as chemical exposure) as being a major factor. So I'd be inclined to believe some other notions expressed here, such as lack of calcium in the diet, or feed that is high in estrogen.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson

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posted 2 years ago

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Kit Collins wrote:I've never raised chickens or ducks, but roughly 40 years ago my family bought a commercial 12-pack carton of chicken eggs from a major supermarket. Most of the eggs in that particular carton had double or even triple yolks. Very doubtful they were from one bird, so a lot of birds on the egg farm must have been doing this at the same time. That would argue for diet or environment (such as chemical exposure) as being a major factor. So I'd be inclined to believe some other notions expressed here, such as lack of calcium in the diet, or feed that is high in estrogen.

Thanks, Kit. I was thinking more "diet" changes, but you are absolutely correct. [ Especially is there is a "profit motive"]: It is quite possible that to lay double yolk eggs, the duck might be given hormones: I have not found that this is the case, but it is logical. Look at what I discovered. This site is about "poultry", [so it could be either or both, I think]:
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/66081
It explains better the role of hormones in egg regulation. Estradiol and Progesterone play a part in how the egg gets put together in the oviduct, from egg formation to completion.
As a *bonus*, something I didn't know at all: "The hens are born with a pair of ovary and oviduct, however, the development of the right ovary and oviduct cease and gradually regress. The left ovary and the oviduct remain functional and contribute in the egg formation". Who knew?
As far as hormones, women can also have their eggs influenced by them. There are estrogen treatments for fertility or to regulate periods or to delay the onset of menopause.
There is a commonality between species here, as both 'lay' eggs that are influenced by hormones.
This site is perfectly clear that no hormones are given to chickens. Look at what they do, on the other hand to beef cattle entering a feedlot!:
https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/chickens-do-not-receive-growth-hormones-so-why-all-the-confusion. Another gem I got from this site is the following statement: "The truth is no hormones have been allowed in poultry production for more than 50 years. Hormone use in poultry production was banned in the United States in the 1950s".
Call me " suspicious Suzie" here, but if a LAW had to be made forbidding the practice, some folks must have tried it and adverse consequences be found, consequences that were bad enough to require a law.
Talk about a bug in my ear! The cattle industry actually implants a dissolving hormone in the cattle's ear?!
Yikes! It pays to know where your food comes from, doesn't it?
When *women* experience low estrogen, "there's an app for that", as they say: Some foods are naturally high in estrogen, so technically, there would be no need for an *artificial pill* to boost estrogen in our poultry, if we were so inclined, and it still would be perfectly legal. Personally, I feel that it flirts with illegality, but who am I, right?
https://parade.com/1271439/kaitlin-vogel/foods-high-in-estrogen/

This is why I love the Permies site so much: the members' comments and questions continuously encourages curiosity and knowledge sharing, whether or not we are experts in the field, so thanks again, Kit.

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Pete Vraspir

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posted 2 years ago

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Everyone - Thank you for the comments!

The double yolk eggs have subsided in the last week, so I’m hoping it was just one of my hens getting back into laying. The Muscovys don’t lay much (if at all) during Nov-Feb, so they have just started laying again. My Pekins seem to lay sporadically throughout the year, though ramp up in spring and summer to lay almost every day.

To reply to some of the questions - no blood or goop around the eggs. I’ll watch carefully for any of them to be egg-bound but so far no problems. I’m not sure I could pinpoint the cause but I think maybe we are out of the woods, so to speak. So far everyone seems happy and egg production has returned to normal.

Love this forum and all the suggestions and articles. I’m getting through all that you all recommended - thanks again!

Cécile Stelzer Johnson

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posted 2 years ago

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Pete Vraspir wrote:Everyone - Thank you for the comments!

The double yolk eggs have subsided in the last week, so I’m hoping it was just one of my hens getting back into laying. The Muscovys don’t lay much (if at all) during Nov-Feb, so they have just started laying again. My Pekins seem to lay sporadically throughout the year, though ramp up in spring and summer to lay almost every day.
To reply to some of the questions - no blood or goop around the eggs. I’ll watch carefully for any of them to be egg-bound but so far no problems. I’m not sure I could pinpoint the cause but I think maybe we are out of the woods, so to speak. So far everyone seems happy and egg production has returned to normal.
Love this forum and all the suggestions and articles. I’m getting through all that you all recommended - thanks again!

Glad to know things are going back to normal for you. Since I don't know squat about raising ducks, I was wondering:
chickens lay their eggs in the morning. by 11, they are done.
In retrospect, and had I known, my one hen that dies egg bound could have been prevented: I did see her late in the evening in a laying box and just thought it odd. Had I noticed her, I might have helped, although I have no idea what to do if I have an egg-bound critter. Soaking her in a warm Epsom salt bath and giving her extra calcium is all I've seen.

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Pete Vraspir

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posted 2 years ago

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Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:

Pete Vraspir wrote:Everyone - Thank you for the comments!

Glad to know things are going back to normal for you. Since I don't know squat about raising ducks, I was wondering:
chickens lay their eggs in the morning. by 11, they are done.
In retrospect, and had I known, my one hen that dies egg bound could have been prevented: I did see her late in the evening in a laying box and just thought it odd. Had I noticed her, I might have helped, although I have no idea what to do if I have an egg-bound critter. Soaking her in a warm Epsom salt bath and giving her extra calcium is all I've seen.

I have a few lazy chickens that will sometimes lay in the early afternoon, but otherwise yes. Pretty much everyone is done laying by noon. I will sometimes watch the Pekins lay (its more like they are walking around and then a egg drops out their backend - they seem totally clueless about eggs and are TERRIBLE setters) if I'm early to feed in the morning, but I think my ducks usually lay very early in the morning. I usually feed in the morning around 9 and the ducks are always done by then. Invariably I have to go back out and check for chicken eggs if I'm that early because someone will drop an egg around 11 or noon. Thanks for the tip on what to do with an egg bound chicken. I've never had that. If I lose a chicken/animal its almost always due to a predator.

The Muscovys are WONDERFUL setters and actually hatched a Pekin duckling for me last year. Since I only have a Pekin drake, my chicks are either Pekins or mule ducks.

Sarah Elizabeth

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Pete Vraspir wrote:Everyone - Thank you for the comments!

Love this forum and all the suggestions and articles. I’m getting through all that you all recommended - thanks again!

Pete, thanks for asking an interesting question and sorry I called you Ben in my post!

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