SlipperyGoose
Chirping
Hi all!
I have 4 Welsh Harlequin ducks and 3 drakes (2 Blue Swedish and 1 Khaki Campbell). They have a "house" and a framed/chicken wire fence enclosure surrounding that house, plus another 4-foot no climb horse surrounding that enclosure and allowing about 100 feet by 100 feet of roaming room that I call "the run". All that is inside our 4 acres that have the same horse fence all around it and they free range that during the day and go the house at night.
On Sept. 8 I noticed one of my ducks, coincidently named Big Mama, acting broody on a small clutch of eggs. (4 total). These have been laid in a nest she made, inside the run but just outside the house enclosure. She acted broody last summer before I even had the drakes, so I wasn't too surprised by this. I keep a kiddie pool inside the run with them and I've also witnessed several mating sessions so I'm confident these eggs are fertilized.
I waited a week before candling them, because I let her sit on them just on a whim. I had no plans to purposely hatch eggs, but I thought it would be fun to let her do her thing. When I candled them, there was no veining or anything. So I put them back. Then I became more diligent about watching her behavior. She leaves them for hours at a time to free-range with her flock, but will lay on the eggs once everyone returns to the run (I assume they do this because of the giant tree that we put their house under for shade. She's also laying on them every morning, so again I assume she's been there all night.) Now, I'm in Tennessee so everyday here is about 70% - 80% humidity and at least 90 degrees each day, and research suggests that she doesn't have to incubate them with her body because the ambient temp is doing it for her. I've also noticed that one of my drakes, named Holder, has been standing next to the nest (guarding it?) and also laying on it. I've got pics to prove this, ;-) But yesterday I checked the nest and found one has been broken, and these are hard shells to crack so this had to be deliberate. Then last night putting them to bed, I noticed that the cracked egg had been removed from the nest, and I found it about 15 feet from the nest and it had been cleaned out. Now, I had been removing eggs because I didn't think I wanted her to hatch out a whole lot of eggs, but I think her only having 4 in there is preventing her from truly brooding them, because nature says they won't all hatch, and that's a lot of work for only 4. So I took some of the ones I had removed during the week from Sept. 8 to the 14 (only three a day because one of my ducks, Cupcake, stopped laying weeks ago) and put them back, as they have a good chance of being fertilized. I didn't wash them, simply put them in an egg carton, pointy end down, on my kitchen counter. I also had some that are probably NOT viable, and put them in there too just to make it look full. This means I now have 16 eggs in there, with 10 of them being likely to be fertile and viable.
So my main questions are these:
1.) Do I need to put up a barrier ( I have spare fencing) for her to keep her close to her nest and not allow the other ducks near her and the nest? I've read so many opinions that are split 50/50 to either leave them alone or separate the flock from her and the nest. I don't have the experience to know what's best.
2.) Should I replace the 'bad eggs' with fresh, fertilzed ones over the next few days?? --- I saw my duck Amelia mate with Holder yesterday afternoon, and I was considering removing the eggs I'm confident are not viable and leaving the ones Amelia lays over the next 2 days or so, to help increase the chances of having fertile eggs hatch. I don't want Big Mama to abandon the nest due to so many not being hatchable.
Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences with this process.. I have an incubator but I've been too scared to use it... I wasn't sure I was ready for the responsibilty and stress/excitement that comes with incubating eggs myself... but I kinda got my hopes up at the thought of having sweet ducklings, born from my flock whom I love so much.... so I'm struggling with how to proceed here. Thanks again for your advice!!
I have 4 Welsh Harlequin ducks and 3 drakes (2 Blue Swedish and 1 Khaki Campbell). They have a "house" and a framed/chicken wire fence enclosure surrounding that house, plus another 4-foot no climb horse surrounding that enclosure and allowing about 100 feet by 100 feet of roaming room that I call "the run". All that is inside our 4 acres that have the same horse fence all around it and they free range that during the day and go the house at night.
On Sept. 8 I noticed one of my ducks, coincidently named Big Mama, acting broody on a small clutch of eggs. (4 total). These have been laid in a nest she made, inside the run but just outside the house enclosure. She acted broody last summer before I even had the drakes, so I wasn't too surprised by this. I keep a kiddie pool inside the run with them and I've also witnessed several mating sessions so I'm confident these eggs are fertilized.
I waited a week before candling them, because I let her sit on them just on a whim. I had no plans to purposely hatch eggs, but I thought it would be fun to let her do her thing. When I candled them, there was no veining or anything. So I put them back. Then I became more diligent about watching her behavior. She leaves them for hours at a time to free-range with her flock, but will lay on the eggs once everyone returns to the run (I assume they do this because of the giant tree that we put their house under for shade. She's also laying on them every morning, so again I assume she's been there all night.) Now, I'm in Tennessee so everyday here is about 70% - 80% humidity and at least 90 degrees each day, and research suggests that she doesn't have to incubate them with her body because the ambient temp is doing it for her. I've also noticed that one of my drakes, named Holder, has been standing next to the nest (guarding it?) and also laying on it. I've got pics to prove this, ;-) But yesterday I checked the nest and found one has been broken, and these are hard shells to crack so this had to be deliberate. Then last night putting them to bed, I noticed that the cracked egg had been removed from the nest, and I found it about 15 feet from the nest and it had been cleaned out. Now, I had been removing eggs because I didn't think I wanted her to hatch out a whole lot of eggs, but I think her only having 4 in there is preventing her from truly brooding them, because nature says they won't all hatch, and that's a lot of work for only 4. So I took some of the ones I had removed during the week from Sept. 8 to the 14 (only three a day because one of my ducks, Cupcake, stopped laying weeks ago) and put them back, as they have a good chance of being fertilized. I didn't wash them, simply put them in an egg carton, pointy end down, on my kitchen counter. I also had some that are probably NOT viable, and put them in there too just to make it look full. This means I now have 16 eggs in there, with 10 of them being likely to be fertile and viable.
So my main questions are these:
1.) Do I need to put up a barrier ( I have spare fencing) for her to keep her close to her nest and not allow the other ducks near her and the nest? I've read so many opinions that are split 50/50 to either leave them alone or separate the flock from her and the nest. I don't have the experience to know what's best.
2.) Should I replace the 'bad eggs' with fresh, fertilzed ones over the next few days?? --- I saw my duck Amelia mate with Holder yesterday afternoon, and I was considering removing the eggs I'm confident are not viable and leaving the ones Amelia lays over the next 2 days or so, to help increase the chances of having fertile eggs hatch. I don't want Big Mama to abandon the nest due to so many not being hatchable.
Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences with this process.. I have an incubator but I've been too scared to use it... I wasn't sure I was ready for the responsibilty and stress/excitement that comes with incubating eggs myself... but I kinda got my hopes up at the thought of having sweet ducklings, born from my flock whom I love so much.... so I'm struggling with how to proceed here. Thanks again for your advice!!
