- Apr 11, 2009
- 494
- 8
- 136
My poor Pekin, Daisy...
4 weeks ago she decided to go broody, which I'd never considered because I thought Pekin's weren't much of a broody breed. She only had 3 eggs in her nest though.
After a couple of days I found a mishap had occurred leaving Daisy with a yolk-covered breast and just one remaining egg. She has loved and treasured and nurtured this one egg for, I think, 26 days (not exactly sure when she starting sitting full time). Yesterday I candled it while she was out for her morning food and paddle. It was doing beautifully, had pipped internally and was wriggling so I figured another 2-3 days.
This morning DH let the ducks out, Daisy came out as usual for her 5 minute respite. Half an hour ago DH went to shut them in for the night and found both ducks outside and the duck house door had blown shut! This could only mean she'd been off the nest since this morning - 12+ hours ago. Worse still the weather has been rotten for the last few days - maybe high 60s, and torrential non-stop rain.
As soon as DH told me, I ran down with a flashlight and candled it. It was stone cold but I think I saw the tiniest flicker of movement, so ran home with it and fired up my brinsea for emergency re-warming. Brinsea, bless its reliability, was up to 95 degrees within 5 minutes and rising fast. I guess we just have to wait and see if the poor little duckling makes it, but I will be so devastated for Daisy if nearly 4 weeks of diligent nesting comes to nothing...please keep fingers crossed...
I guess its the equivalent of a powercut during lockdown! On the positive side I have successfully hatched 24 out of 25 eggs from Donald and Daisy this year in my incubator - they seem pretty resilient, so I'm not giving up hope just yet...
(cross posted in incubating/hatching last night)
4 weeks ago she decided to go broody, which I'd never considered because I thought Pekin's weren't much of a broody breed. She only had 3 eggs in her nest though.
After a couple of days I found a mishap had occurred leaving Daisy with a yolk-covered breast and just one remaining egg. She has loved and treasured and nurtured this one egg for, I think, 26 days (not exactly sure when she starting sitting full time). Yesterday I candled it while she was out for her morning food and paddle. It was doing beautifully, had pipped internally and was wriggling so I figured another 2-3 days.
This morning DH let the ducks out, Daisy came out as usual for her 5 minute respite. Half an hour ago DH went to shut them in for the night and found both ducks outside and the duck house door had blown shut! This could only mean she'd been off the nest since this morning - 12+ hours ago. Worse still the weather has been rotten for the last few days - maybe high 60s, and torrential non-stop rain.
As soon as DH told me, I ran down with a flashlight and candled it. It was stone cold but I think I saw the tiniest flicker of movement, so ran home with it and fired up my brinsea for emergency re-warming. Brinsea, bless its reliability, was up to 95 degrees within 5 minutes and rising fast. I guess we just have to wait and see if the poor little duckling makes it, but I will be so devastated for Daisy if nearly 4 weeks of diligent nesting comes to nothing...please keep fingers crossed...
I guess its the equivalent of a powercut during lockdown! On the positive side I have successfully hatched 24 out of 25 eggs from Donald and Daisy this year in my incubator - they seem pretty resilient, so I'm not giving up hope just yet...
(cross posted in incubating/hatching last night)
