Thread formerly known as Hatch day is today - Page 3557

BH, very impressive hatch rate!  Congrats!!!

Marty, congrats on your ancona laying and getting through NPIP testing!

Im happy for the chance to up my ducks again.  I do really miss them all.  My frined out west who I trade Khaki eggs with a lot is setting 3 dz from her best layers (and my old ones) to set me up with an egg flock again.  She's also NPIP, so I can safely import from her.  It seems awefully quiet without all the ducks quacking at me.  And, my clients who bought the duck eggs for their oriental friends are wanting eggs again. 

The Ancona lays very dark slate gray eggs.  I wanted blue, but this is an interesting color.

Anconas are such beautiful ducks and their ducklings are probably the coolest looking I've ever seen.  We went with mallards because of the heat in AZ and they are fairly prolific in the wild here, so I figured they'd do well.  Plus, we didn't want huge ducks, we have a small yard.  If I had a big old farm someplace with real seasons, I'd have a whole huge flock of all kinds of ducks.  We had rouens and pekins when I was a kid in Colorado, boy did they seem to love the snow, well the rouens did anyway.  Two or three from this hatch will be staying with us, the others will be going in pairs to coworkers who have room for them.  It's gonna be hard to give these little guys up!

I think mallards are lovely, but I don't like birds that ditch at will!  LOL

I enjoy my anconas and the girls lay pinkish eggs.  My cayuga started off grey, but her eggs lightened to off-white to the point that I can barely tell them apart.

My Anconas have laid pinkisk, blueish, and greenish eggs.  I love all the colors!  Haven't seen a slate colored egg, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marty1876 

Just finished NPIP/AI testing 60 birds.  One roo jammed a thumb really bad too. it hurts a lot, & im using a heat pad, since I need it for milking.

 

If you ever test, wear red......

 The wearing red is definitely true my worst bleeders are the Anconas ducks but worst than that was silkie chickens having black skin makes it hard for the tester to find the vein.  I felt bad for my silkies. Were due in May again and so glad I don't have it in the winter especially on windy cold days with everything frozen. I miss spring right about now.  Sorry bout your thumb especially since you have to milk..... you might have to milk with one hand. Takes longer but had to do that once due to hand injury. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhhastin 

The other wrong-end pipper finally hatched!  (first pic)  I came in to find her thrashing around the incubator with the shell on her head.  After she got it off she was all over the place, so I put her in the brooder, but the other ducklings were climbing all over her and standing on her head and neck, so I put her in a bowl with a wash cloth in the brooder.  She was so active right after hatching, I think she might have worn herself out!  Two more to go, starting to zip, hopefully we'll have a 100% hatch rate.  That's awesome considering these eggs were shipped to me by the postal service.  Got them from Metzer Farms in California, shipped to Phoenix area in Arizona, so didn't have too far to go. :)

 Great first hatch by the way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marty1876 

 I love baby ducks!

 

My remaining Ancona hen is laying again, so Im putting her and my best boy togather to start sitting eggs in 3 weeks. 

Wonderful news. I have a few in the incubator now but the ones that were due for new years were not fertile (first eggs) Now they are fertile and the temps are freezing cold so some freeze before I get to them.  Did I mention I miss spring right about now?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marty1876 

Im happy for the chance to up my ducks again.  I do really miss them all.  My frined out west who I trade Khaki eggs with a lot is setting 3 dz from her best layers (and my old ones) to set me up with an egg flock again.  She's also NPIP, so I can safely import from her.  It seems awefully quiet without all the ducks quacking at me.  And, my clients who bought the duck eggs for their oriental friends are wanting eggs again. 

 

The Ancona lays very dark slate gray eggs.  I wanted blue, but this is an interesting color.

Sounds like the coating of the first eggs laid. This should fade away as they continue to lay. I was  hoping for some colored eggs from my new additions this year, but so far everyone is laying white. I have a few young girls that have yet to start laying but white is pretty common so I figure they will be white egg layers too. An egg is an egg though so no matter what color it has the potential of hatching out some nice ducks. I think the drake passes on the egg color to his daughters this is something I've seen with my runners over the years. 

Thanks Coyote!  Number 6 is finally here (see pic), one more to go.  These last two were significantly larger eggs than the others, so I guess it makes sense they are the last ones.  The only one left has only a little pip, but I candled it about an hour ago and there was definitely movement in there.  The first five are in the brooder, all hanging out under a 75 watt black light.  It's a big brooder, so there's a ton of room to run around, but I guess the light I have is little cool for them, since they're hanging out under it.  I have a 100 watt clear light, but that seems too hot.  Maybe one of the 65 watt yellow bulbs out of a reading lamp?  I cooked a box of pekin ducklings when I was a kid, left the lamp on them in a small box in the garage during a huge snow storm.  Thought they needed a lot of heat to compensate for the storm, came home from school and they were all dead.  I'm a little leery of too much heat now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amiga 

X2      I found that my duckling was comfortable at 85* for his first week. I had his brooder which was a big rubber maid tote in my closet hung the heat lamp over the closet pole, Just one lone duckling then I dropped the temp 5* each week after that. If your ducklings pile on top of each other they aren't warm enough. A infrared heat lamp 250 watts is good to use as long as you have a way of keeping tabs on temps. They are adorable, great hatch too. Congrats!!