Why a laying duck needs written backup
Yes, keep one. Khaki Campbells are among the most productive laying ducks, and that productivity is the reason a log matters: a hen in heavy lay is spending heavily on eggs, and the first signs that something is off are usually numerical, fewer eggs in the house, a slight dip in weight, a feed change nobody connected to either. Ducks are also stoic birds who mask illness, and in a flock of similar khaki hens, individual change is easy to miss. Written laying, weight, and health entries give you a baseline to compare against, which is the only reliable way to notice a duck quietly going wrong.
Laying and feed entries: the daily half of the log
Keep a simple daily egg tally for the flock, and note the feed as offered: the layers ration, any greens or garden access, grit and calcium source available, and the state of drinking and bathing water, which ducks need in good supply to eat and stay in condition. Date every feed change, because a laying dip three or four days after a change is a pattern only a log reveals. Seasonal lines matter too: shorter days, a moult, hot weather, and a move of house all affect laying, and noting them stops you chasing a feed explanation for a daylight effect. If you handle individual hens for any reason, add a line in her name rather than the flock's.
Weight and hands-on checks for a bird who hides trouble
Weigh a sample of hens, or each hen if the flock is small, every few weeks, lifting them calmly and feeling the keel bone and breast muscle: a keel that feels increasingly sharp under thinning muscle is condition leaving, whatever the feathers suggest. Log the figures or your plain-words findings beside the laying tally. Add observations on gait, since leg trouble shows early in ducks, on feather quality through the moult, on eyes and nostrils, and on droppings in the house. Note any hen found sitting apart, slow to come out in the morning, or last to the feed, with the date; in a laying flock, behaviour entries often precede weight entries by days.
When the log says to get help
A single soft-shelled egg or one quiet day is flock life, but a pattern is a prompt: laying stopping in several hens alongside weight loss, a hen off her legs, laboured breathing, discharge from eyes or nostrils, or a bird rapidly losing condition should go to a vet, ideally one who sees poultry, without waiting for the next weighing day. Take your notes: when laying changed, what the feed has been, and which birds are affected. That timeline is what turns a flock problem from a vague worry into a workable examination.
A keeper's rhythm that takes minutes
Egg tally when you collect, feed lines when you fill the hopper, weights on one fixed morning a month, health notes whenever a hen catches your eye. The whole system costs minutes a week and returns a season-by-season picture no memory can match. Kept in KinsLe's Pet Passport, your Khaki Campbell flock's laying, weight, and health record stays in one packet, so each new season starts from last season's facts instead of a fresh guess.