Mallard Ducks

The most popular and well-known duck is probably the Mallard. They can be found just about anywhere in the world. Mallards are so common that when most think of a duck, they imagine a Mallard.

The Mallard is the origin of all domestic duck breeds other than the Muscovy. According to Charles Darwin, of all wild ducks, only the male Mallard has the distinctive curl in the tail feathers. As all male domestic ducks have these curly feathers, he came to the conclusion that all domestic breeds originated from the Mallard. From the big, meaty Pekin to the skinny, upright Runner duck - their ancestor is the Mallard breed.

They are a very popular hunting bird as they are so abundant throughout the US. Their meat is considered very flavorful.

They can lay between 60 to 120 eggs a year on a farm. In the wild they will lay 10-15 eggs in a nest. If their first brood is raised early or their nest is destroyed, they can lay a second set of eggs. Compared to domestic breeds their egg production is low, but their fertility is one of the best we have - about 90%.

Mallards are beautiful birds. Females are a speckled brown, but the males sport striking green heads, a white collar around the neck, gray on the belly, and cinnamon chests when they are adults. However, until males start to get their colorful feathers at 12 weeks of age, they are the same coloring as the females. By 16 weeks the males are fully feathered and retain these colors until the end of the breeding season when they molt into more drab, less brightly colored feathers. After 3-4 months, their beautiful feathers grow back and these are retained until their molt the next summer.

Today, the Mallard is considered an invasive wild species in some areas as it is able to mate with other indigenous ducks thereby producing new hybrids and eventually diluting the pure native breed until purebreds are rare. Wildlife authorities in both Hawaii and Florida do not allow the importation of Mallards in fear of them hybridizing their native duck population. In Hawaii, the native duck is the Koloa duck which is on the endangered list, and in Florida it is the Mottled duck.

The vast majority of wild Mallards migrate. In the summer they can be found in the northern parts of the US and all of Canada. When fall arrives and food becomes scarce, they fly south to more temperate climates such as the southern US and parts of Mexico. Come spring, they again return to their nesting grounds.

This migration pattern can be divided in to four different flyways or flight paths: Pacific, Central, Mississippi, and Atlantic Flyways. Scientists believe they use a combination of polarized light, stars, and landmarks to find their way during migration. Nature’s own GPS!

There are, of course, exceptions. There are plenty of areas that do not have a winter - where the water does not freeze over and there are enough food resources year round. In these areas many Mallards decide to take up year round residence. This includes Hawaii’s Koloa and Florida’s Mottled ducks which are both categorized as non-migratory.

If you release Mallards that have not been hatched and grown in the wild, it is highly unlikely they will migrate. Studies show they go no further than five miles from where they were released. Though your released birds may fly away, the Mallard’s ability to fly and escape predators makes them much more likely to survive than any domestic ducks released into ponds and streams. If, however, you do not want your Mallards to fly, you can trim their wing feathers as show in our feather trimming blog post.

Mallards are beautiful birds. Enjoy them in your pen, barnyard, garden or pond.

Breed	Temperament	Weight	Egg Production	Mothering	Bluish Eggs	Egg Size
Mallard	Calm	2.25-2.5 pounds	60-120/year	Very Good	70%	65-75 grams
Fertility	APA Class	Foraging Ability	Conservation Status	Our Show Quality	Flying Ability	Origin
90%	Bantam	Very Good	Abundant	Too "Chunky"	Very Good	Native to North America

Six Steps to Keep Ducks From Eating Their Eggs

Originally posted by John Metzer on Sat, Jan 08, 2011 @ 10:27 AM 

Some poultry develop a habit of eating freshly laid eggs. We have never seen it in geese but have with ducks. It can be prevented if you follow these steps, with the most important first.

1)  Have an adequate number of well bedded nest boxes. It is highly unlikely a duck will purposely break and eat an egg. Normally they acquire the taste when an egg is accidentally broken and they find they like the taste. So make sure you have enough nests (a minimum of one nest for every four females), your birds are not overcrowded (at least five square feet per bird) and each nest has at least two inches of wood shavings, sawdust, straw or hay in the bottom. It is important there is a 3-4” front on the nest so the bedding stays in the nest. We will discuss nest construction for ducks and geese in a future blog.  We have found the larger, clumsier ducks, such as Pekins, accidentally break and then eat more of their eggs than the lighter breeds.

2)  Pick up any broken eggs quickly and do not toss cracked or broken eggs back to your ducks.

3)  Make sure your ducks are getting a well balanced layer feed that has at least 3% calcium. And remember, by mixing chicken scratch with a balanced layer feed, you are making an unbalanced layer feed. The scratch adds carbohydrates but little protein and few minerals. If you are having an egg eating problem, buy some oyster shell at your local feed store and allow them to eat as much of that as they want. Just put it in a feeder and place it in a dry spot. They may eat more than they need but not enough to harm themselves.

4)  Remove the offending ducks. Watch your birds and see which are doing the breaking and eating. Any incriminating yolk on their bills?

5)  Give the birds other things to play with and eat instead of eggs. Put in chunks of vegetables: cabbage, lettuce, carrots, beets, potatoes, etc.
6)  The last alternative is using fake eggs. Some recommend putting golf balls in the nests. Ducks are not brilliant but I think they are smart enough to quickly learn they cannot eat a golf ball, then ignore it and continue eating eggs.

Besides losing good eggs, there are also health concerns for your birds if they continually eat raw eggs. An essential vitamin is biotin and eggs contain avidin, which binds and prevents the use of biotin. Cooking deactivates the avidin. But if your birds continually eat raw eggs, they may develop a biotin deficiency.

Some people have said to put hot pepper in an egg and the birds will learn to not eat broken eggs due to the pain from the peppers. The problem with this theory, however, is that peppers cause no discomfort to birds! They even put hot pepper in bird seed to prevent squirrels from eating it! In my research I did find there is a compound, methyl anthranilate, that birds detest. It is a naturally occurring compound that is found in concord grape skins and burns the pain receptors in birds just like hot peppers do us. It is used in all sorts of bird repellents but it is not sold in smaller, retail quantities. I wonder? Is there enough methyl anthranilate in grape juice to train ducks to not eat their eggs?

I ran an experiment by putting duck feed in two troughs. In one trough I poured water on the feed at one end of the trough and Welch's grape juice on the feed at the other end. On another feeder, I poured water on half and Grape Kool-Aid on the other. The result? All was equally eaten. If there was any methyl anthranilate in either product, there wasn't enough to bother the ducks! Of course, hungry ducks will eat most anything. It is like putting two kinds of feed in front of a hungry Black Lab (our dog). Everything will be eaten – taste does not enter into the equation!

So until someone can find something with adequate amounts of methyl anthranilate in it to put in “training” eggs, you will need to follow the six steps listed above to prevent your ducks from eating their eggs.