A laying duck's expected decade
A Khaki Campbell duck will usually live for about eight to ten years, with well-kept individuals sometimes going beyond that. The Campbell is a light, athletic duck in dusty khaki plumage, developed in England from crosses that included Indian Runner blood, and selected above all as an egg layer. A good Campbell hen in her prime can lay at a rate that rivals hens, and that output shapes how she ages: she is an athlete with a season of hard work in her youth rather than a heavy meat bird coasting through life.
Drakes live to a similar age when they are not lost to fighting or predators, and they age more gently, since they carry none of the laying burden. In a mixed backyard or smallholding flock, the practical truth is that the average Campbell's life is decided less by its breed clock than by the security of its housing. Ducks are near the top of every local predator's menu, and a flock shut safely away each night routinely outlives a flock left to chance, whatever the breed guides promise.
What heavy laying asks of a Campbell hen
Laying is mineral work. Every shell is built largely from calcium drawn from the diet and, when the diet falls short, from the hen's own reserves. A Campbell fed only on scraps and forage may keep laying for a while by spending herself, then falter with soft shells, laying difficulty, or general decline. Layer feed formulated for waterfowl or poultry, plus a separate dish of crushed shell she can take freely, lets a hard-working hen fund her eggs from her feed rather than from her bones.
Water is the second laying essential people underestimate. A duck needs water deep enough to submerge her whole head to keep her eyes and nostrils clean, and a Campbell without it develops sticky, infected eyes and breathing trouble that drag her down. She does not require a pond, despite the pictures; a trough or bucket she can dunk in, refreshed often, meets the need and is far easier to keep clean than a stagnant pool.
Egg laying also slows naturally with age. An older Campbell that lays seasonally rather than relentlessly is not failing; she is retiring on schedule, and she can remain a lively, slug-hunting member of the flock for years after her best laying is behind her.
The dangers that actually shorten Campbell lives
Predators head the list by a long way. Foxes, dogs, and other night hunters take more ducks than disease and old age combined, and Campbells, being light and ground-roosting, have little defence once a run is breached. A solid house, a run with a covered top and buried or skirted fencing, and a strict dusk lock-up routine are lifespan interventions in the truest sense.
Wet, filthy ground is the quieter killer. Ducks foul water and trample grass to mud, and a small static run soon becomes a bacterial soup that breeds foot infections and gut trouble. Moving the run, resting ground, providing a hard standing area by the water, and keeping drinking water as clean as a duck allows all slow that decline. Watch feet in particular: a limping duck with a swollen, scabbed foot needs attention early, because infection in a duck's foot deepens fast and walking is how she feeds.
Flock records for birds that outlive memories
A flock kept for a decade turns over gradually, and the details blur: which hen laid through winter, which duck had the foot trouble, which drake is related to which females. Writing it down per bird, dull as it sounds, is what separates a managed flock from a muddle, and it protects the birds when the keeper changes. KinsLe's Transferrable Profiles let a duck's profile, laying notes, and health history pass to a new keeper so the flock's knowledge survives the move.