This study was aimed at estimating the dietary manganese (Mn) requirement for laying duck breeders. A total of 504 Longyan duck breeders (body weight: 1.20 ± 0.02 kg) aged 17 wk were randomly allocated to 6 treatments. The birds were fed a basal diet (Mn, 17.5 mg/kg) or diets supplemented with 20, 40, 80, 120 or 160 mg/kg Mn (as MnSO4·H2O) for 18 wks. Each treatment had 6 replicates of 14 ducks each. As a result of this study, dietary Mn supplementation did not affect the productive performance of laying duck breeders in the early laying period (17 to 18 wk), but affected egg production, egg mass and feed conversion ratio (FCR) from 19 to 34 wk (P < 0.05), and there was a linear and quadratic effect of supplement level (P < 0.05). The proportion of pre-ovulatory ovarian follicles increased (P < 0.01) linearly and quadratically, and atretic follicles (weight and percentage) decreased (P < 0.05) quadratically with dietary Mn supplementation. The density and breaking strength of tibias increased (quadratic; P < 0.05), the calcium content of tibias decreased (linear, quadratic; P < 0.01), and Mn content increased (linear, quadratic; P < 0.001) with increasing Mn. The addition of Mn had a quadratic effect on serum contents of estradiol, prolactin, progesterone, luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone (P < 0.001). Dietary Mn supplementation decreased serum contents of total protein (linear, P < 0.05), glucose (quadratic, P < 0.05), total bilirubin, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and calcium (linear, quadratic; P < 0.05). The serum total antioxidant capacity, and total and Mn-containing superoxide dismutase activities increased (linear, quadratic; P < 0.001), and malondialdehyde content decreased (linear, quadratic; P < 0.001) in response to Mn supplemental levels. The dietary Mn requirements, in mg/kg for a basal diet containing 17.5 mg/kg Mn, for Longyan duck breeders from 19 to 34 weeks of age were estimated to be 84.2 for optimizing egg production, 85.8 for egg mass, and 95.0 for FCR. Overall, dietary Mn supplementation, up to 160 mg/kg feed, affected productive performance, tibial characteristics, serum biochemical and antioxidant status of layer duck breeders. Supplementing this basal diet (17.5 mg/kg Mn) with 85 to 95 mg/kg additional Mn was adequate for laying duck breeders during the laying period.