New Australian Hatching Mystery Egg at Home

[RustyHen]

Here is a web page for you they have house ducks and geese so paruse the whole thing. As a fashion designer you will see the diapers they offer and probably be able to make your own

The page I have shows how to feed full grown ducks and geese in the house without mess.

http://www.thegoosesmother.com/id72.html

deb

perchie.girl what a great site for info on house ducks and geese!

 

[drumstick diva]

great video but, just how many ducklings were in there - whoa mama was prolific. I love how most are anxious to take the leap of faith and a few that aren't convinced.

I don't think Basil's mom abandoned him. More likely she sacrificed herself to some ferocious, maybe alien, predator to save his life. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[drumstick diva]

PS I wouldn't eat brocoli or beans either. Maybe he would like a finely mashed egg yolk moistened with plain, unsweetened yoqurt.

 

[momo18clara]

HOORAY!!! He finally hatched!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!

 

[3Dchicken]

YAY!

I am glad it's not a dinosaur or alien!!!

 

[Jharper]

Haha

 

[momo18clara]

More fluffy baby pictures please!

 

[hillfloweranch]

I thought I would share some photos of my set up! As I mentioned, our set up is really very simplistic! We are only incubating a single egg and as much as I'd love to, I doubt my family will let me take on incubating as a long term hobby, so simple was best. I did progress from this a little though, the bowl is wrapped in a large towel for insulation, and now we have a second thermometer which sits inside the bowl and measures two additional lots of temperature, and humidity, and I make sure there is ventilation around the edges. The egg is not sitting on anything damp, and I turn it by hand as many times a day as I can! I know this set up is a lot more simple to many of the more advanced incubators here, but it still seems to be working! I took this photo when I candled it a few days ago, and then because I was frustrated at the inability to get a decent photograph of the embryo (hard to hold egg, torch and camera all at the same time) I quickly illustrated the rough size and shape of what I saw when I candled it again this morning (day 20). It is definitely not this contrasted or dark, but I tried to make it clearer to see, the shapes are harder to distinguish in real life. It is very wriggly inside, seems to waggle it's little "wings" around and bob what I think is its head. The mark on the shell is a sort of white bump that is on the outside and has been there from day one! Does this development look sort of alright for day 20, to anyone with experience in ducks? I'm wondering if my temperature is being kept perhaps a little bit too low because I have been nervous about accidentally letting it get too high and I have been maintaining it at between 37.2'c and 37.8'c.

You're a genius on the incubator!! I would never have thought to use glass bowls but what a fabulous idea! Kinda wish I hadn't spent all that $$ on a styrofoam bator. :-/

 

[Teloka]

Most wood (forest) ducks can really jump. I raised a little orphaned Muscovy, and he jumped out of his box and came looking for me. Hubby didn't believe it until he saw Henry do it several times. They have a very sharp middle(I think) claw designed for that purpose. So they can climb out of the nest/hatching area and go find "MOM".

Watch that little guy like a hawk until you have him in a secure box. I don't know about wood ducks, but other breeds can manage a day or two without food, as long as they have water.

They can be great but demanding pets! Congrats

Basil has started doing that this morning! He's not even 24 hours old and jumping out of the brooder box. I was doing some dishes and I heard him start peeping very very loud so I went to see-- and he came running across the floor to me! Very cute, but can't be too safe for him!

Here is a web page for you they have house ducks and geese so paruse the whole thing. As a fashion designer you will see the diapers they offer and probably be able to make your own

The page I have shows how to feed full grown ducks and geese in the house without mess.

http://www.thegoosesmother.com/id72.html

deb

Thank you so much! This is a great website! I wish I could get that pack for baby hatchlings, but I assume it's from America so it wouldn't arrive in time to be useful for baby Basil unfortunately. But as was suggested as well, I might be able to make my own homemade duckie diapers for him so that he doesn't make a huge mess around the place. At the moment he's not doing many poops, so it's great, hahaha

here is a description of the wood duck in Australia. Apparently they are considered a pest and you can shoot them on your property without a liscence.

http://tinyurl.com/a3c6e64

deb

Oh noooooo! I would never do that! It's hard to own a gun in Australia anyway, hahaha. I'm not sure if Wood Ducks are a pest here, but I will be getting myself a license asap.

YAY!

I am glad it's not a dinosaur or alien!!!

It would have been adorable if it had been either of those too! At least if it was a vegetarian, hehehe Some here are still lamenting that it isn't a baby Toothless/Dragon!

 

[Teloka]

You're a genius on the incubator!! I would never have thought to use glass bowls but what a fabulous idea! Kinda wish I hadn't spent all that $$ on a styrofoam bator. :-/

Using the home-made incubator was SUPER stressful though because all the power was controlled by the standing lamp being closer or further away from the egg, and because I didn't have a thermostat or anything like that and the temperature would go up and down wildly. Generally it only varied by one degree either side of the ideal temperature, but sometimes it would spike up really high or really low and was overall not "very stable". I think I incubated on a fairly low temperature anyway, as it turns out, so perhaps that's why he took a little longer. On the plus side, because the bator was so small, the humidity was super easy to maintain (and I think our super high local humidity probably helped too).

Still, it was perfect for this purpose as we only had the single egg! I don't think I'd use it if I were doing a multiple egg hatch or knew I'd be doing more than one ever. However it's a great simple idea for rescues, it's great that it can be done so simply if the need arises.