Chipmunk Chicks
Free Ranging
Hi all! It's been a minute since I was on BYC, but mostly life is good!
Sadly though, just after New Year's, we lost our beautiful Welsh Harlequin drake to a predator. That was hard to see, but we were able to bury him with at least a little bit of dignity in the backyard. We had stopped free ranging the chickens after losing two to a fox previously, (but maybe 10% of the time), and keeping them in the enclosure most of the day while letting the ducks range. We knew it was a bit of a gamble, but mostly they were trained to go into their hut pretty easily at night. Until recently, they discovered another shallow little pond on the property, and it was getting harder and harder to wrangle them back in at dusk. So it was after dark when I remembered to go back out again to see if they had decided to go in finally, and sure enough, it was too late. The girls were all safe swimming in their little pond, but he was not with them, so I knew something was wrong. We believe it was a mink, or something similar, from the eyes and movement we saw in the water later that night. I'm still working on convincing DH to set a trap, but anyway.
We had not started getting duck eggs yet though, and I remember thinking man, if these girls start to lay right about NOW, maybe there's a chance we could have ducklings? I wish they had started sooner, but sure enough, here we are! It was two weeks to the day we lost Rhys, but we got our first duck egg yesterday, and another today! I bought a little regulator that's supposed to come in today, so I can set the mini fridge to 55F and control the humidity, hoping for 75%, while we see if we may gather a few more. A friend is letting us borrow his incubator, we can pick up from him on Sunday, so I guess we are going to give it a go!
I know it's a longshot, but I have seen online a big range of how long after mating a duck, or specifically a WH duck's eggs, can remain fertile, so we'll see what happens. I have never done a hatch before, so there is a lot I'm having to learn as a first timer. I know I don't want to wait more than seven days to set them in, but it'll probably be Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how quickly we can get it all set up, and warmed up. Thursday 1/26 AM would be one week since finding the first egg. I brought it in the house just long enough to wipe some poop off gently with paper towel and take a picture, then I set it in a basket, tip down, with pine shavings and brought it back out to the hut, just to leave it alone as much as possible from there. The day was a little on the cool side, say between 40-45F but very wet and rainy so plenty of humidity, so hopefully it didn't warm up too much when I brought it in briefly, and wasn't already too awfully chilly from the colder night. I brought it into the shop overnight which is set at 55F and let the basket rest at an angle. I checked it again this morning and the temp is stable; I just filled a bucket partway with water and set that nearby so maybe it doesn't dry out too much till I can bring it into my mini storage fridge.
This morning, there was another egg! It's slightly warmer today, like 45F, and this one looked nice and clean, so I just took a picture in the hut and left it where it was lying, locked up for the day. Hopefully, the inkbird regulator comes in this afternoon like it says, and I can bring them both into the house for the remainder, until they are ready to set. Eep! Wish us luck!
I plan to use either bleach or vinegar to sterilize the incubator when we get it, and hydrogen peroxide to wash the eggs just before they go in. I screenshotted a couple guidelines from various sites to know where to set it all. I'm thinking 99.5F and 55% for ducks to start, then stop turning and increase the humidity closer to hatch, right? I don't want to over complicate things, but then I guess we should also check at Day 7 to see if we have any development. Is there anything else I need to know before we get this party started? Does anyone else have any experience to share with hatching eggs after losing a male? Thanks in advance for all the love and support. It would mean so much to me to be able to see some of our dear drake's fluff babies live on after losing him.
Side note, we did have duck insurance, so we can get a replacement drake shipped at no charge, but he would come with either a hatchery choice duck, or we'd pay for any other ducks of our choice to keep him company for the trip. As of now, DH is not in a rush to get more ducks. While it's easier in some ways to keep all the female chickens and ducks together (9+3 in a 10x10 enclosure, going into separate coops at night), it also makes the enclosure a lot messier. It's much harder on the grass, and the chickens are not thrilled about being in a wet pen. However, if we are trying to do this whole hatch thing now, a part of me would sort of like to just get the new ducklings at more or less the same time, so we don't have to go through the whole brooder thing again later on, and they can all be bonded and raised together. Or if nothing hatches, then at least we have the new hatchery ducklings. DH is feeling like he loves chickens and chicken-keeping, and he doesn't have a whole lot of desire to get more ducks. I don't think he thinks any ducks are realistically going to hatch, even though he is willing to let me try. I do see his point that right now, our setup is a bit limited, and if we were to get another male, I think we would have to go back to ranging them in the daytime, but maybe with poultry netting around the hut. Realistically, we maybe should do that anyway (after catching our known offender), just to keep the chickens' pen dry for them, or if we were to get any new females, bc it would start to stretch the enclosure that much more. So Idk, we'll cross those bridges if we get to any of them, but those are just things that are rolling around in the back of my mind as well.
Sadly though, just after New Year's, we lost our beautiful Welsh Harlequin drake to a predator. That was hard to see, but we were able to bury him with at least a little bit of dignity in the backyard. We had stopped free ranging the chickens after losing two to a fox previously, (but maybe 10% of the time), and keeping them in the enclosure most of the day while letting the ducks range. We knew it was a bit of a gamble, but mostly they were trained to go into their hut pretty easily at night. Until recently, they discovered another shallow little pond on the property, and it was getting harder and harder to wrangle them back in at dusk. So it was after dark when I remembered to go back out again to see if they had decided to go in finally, and sure enough, it was too late. The girls were all safe swimming in their little pond, but he was not with them, so I knew something was wrong. We believe it was a mink, or something similar, from the eyes and movement we saw in the water later that night. I'm still working on convincing DH to set a trap, but anyway.
We had not started getting duck eggs yet though, and I remember thinking man, if these girls start to lay right about NOW, maybe there's a chance we could have ducklings? I wish they had started sooner, but sure enough, here we are! It was two weeks to the day we lost Rhys, but we got our first duck egg yesterday, and another today! I bought a little regulator that's supposed to come in today, so I can set the mini fridge to 55F and control the humidity, hoping for 75%, while we see if we may gather a few more. A friend is letting us borrow his incubator, we can pick up from him on Sunday, so I guess we are going to give it a go!
I know it's a longshot, but I have seen online a big range of how long after mating a duck, or specifically a WH duck's eggs, can remain fertile, so we'll see what happens. I have never done a hatch before, so there is a lot I'm having to learn as a first timer. I know I don't want to wait more than seven days to set them in, but it'll probably be Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how quickly we can get it all set up, and warmed up. Thursday 1/26 AM would be one week since finding the first egg. I brought it in the house just long enough to wipe some poop off gently with paper towel and take a picture, then I set it in a basket, tip down, with pine shavings and brought it back out to the hut, just to leave it alone as much as possible from there. The day was a little on the cool side, say between 40-45F but very wet and rainy so plenty of humidity, so hopefully it didn't warm up too much when I brought it in briefly, and wasn't already too awfully chilly from the colder night. I brought it into the shop overnight which is set at 55F and let the basket rest at an angle. I checked it again this morning and the temp is stable; I just filled a bucket partway with water and set that nearby so maybe it doesn't dry out too much till I can bring it into my mini storage fridge.
This morning, there was another egg! It's slightly warmer today, like 45F, and this one looked nice and clean, so I just took a picture in the hut and left it where it was lying, locked up for the day. Hopefully, the inkbird regulator comes in this afternoon like it says, and I can bring them both into the house for the remainder, until they are ready to set. Eep! Wish us luck!
I plan to use either bleach or vinegar to sterilize the incubator when we get it, and hydrogen peroxide to wash the eggs just before they go in. I screenshotted a couple guidelines from various sites to know where to set it all. I'm thinking 99.5F and 55% for ducks to start, then stop turning and increase the humidity closer to hatch, right? I don't want to over complicate things, but then I guess we should also check at Day 7 to see if we have any development. Is there anything else I need to know before we get this party started? Does anyone else have any experience to share with hatching eggs after losing a male? Thanks in advance for all the love and support. It would mean so much to me to be able to see some of our dear drake's fluff babies live on after losing him.
Side note, we did have duck insurance, so we can get a replacement drake shipped at no charge, but he would come with either a hatchery choice duck, or we'd pay for any other ducks of our choice to keep him company for the trip. As of now, DH is not in a rush to get more ducks. While it's easier in some ways to keep all the female chickens and ducks together (9+3 in a 10x10 enclosure, going into separate coops at night), it also makes the enclosure a lot messier. It's much harder on the grass, and the chickens are not thrilled about being in a wet pen. However, if we are trying to do this whole hatch thing now, a part of me would sort of like to just get the new ducklings at more or less the same time, so we don't have to go through the whole brooder thing again later on, and they can all be bonded and raised together. Or if nothing hatches, then at least we have the new hatchery ducklings. DH is feeling like he loves chickens and chicken-keeping, and he doesn't have a whole lot of desire to get more ducks. I don't think he thinks any ducks are realistically going to hatch, even though he is willing to let me try. I do see his point that right now, our setup is a bit limited, and if we were to get another male, I think we would have to go back to ranging them in the daytime, but maybe with poultry netting around the hut. Realistically, we maybe should do that anyway (after catching our known offender), just to keep the chickens' pen dry for them, or if we were to get any new females, bc it would start to stretch the enclosure that much more. So Idk, we'll cross those bridges if we get to any of them, but those are just things that are rolling around in the back of my mind as well.
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So now the plan is to unplug everything and let it thaw out in the bathtub overnight so the ice is a little easier to break outta there. Oof.
