Problems with hatching ducks

[Indianrunner123]

Hello everyone! I have kept indian runner ducks for about 3 years now, i love them, but its a disaster.

Ive had a fox get two and then alot of them at one time our another randomly started to lose weight and drop dead. I had a vet do a postmortem on two ducks i hatched that dropped dead at a year old and the vet found nothing wrong.

Even on the best layers pellets they did not thrive. I decided with my current ducks when they started to lose weight i would give them vecoxan, a dose we use for sheep to prevent cocodiosis. And they put the weight back on again and are currently good robust ducks. So hopefully this will be the solution to prevent further deaths.

However eveytime it comes to hatching out indian runner ducks its a disaster for me. Once i gathered 28 eggs put them into an incubator and ended up with 3 ducklings at the end of it all. During incubation eggs so bad, then at the time of hatching ducklings just dont hatch or else they are too weak to carrying on breaking out. Then after hatching ive had some take seizures to which ive remedied this with a vitamin b tonic or they just end up dying randomly.

Last week i had three ducklings hatch. But one thet looked so strong went on its back and died, then another one just looked not right like dozy and eventually its breathing became like hiccups and it died. However i am left with one beautiful black and white runner who is totally fine and strong.

As well as this I am finding it so hard to come by other runner ducks to buy anf wonder if it the breed in general that is hard to keep alive i do not know.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated. As I said I love this breed so very much but it breaks my heart that it isnt going to plan.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Hello everyone! I have kept indian runner ducks for about 3 years now, i love them, but its a disaster.

Ive had a fox get two and then alot of them at one time our another randomly started to lose weight and drop dead. I had a vet do a postmortem on two ducks i hatched that dropped dead at a year old and the vet found nothing wrong.

Even on the best layers pellets they did not thrive. I decided with my current ducks when they started to lose weight i would give them vecoxan, a dose we use for sheep to prevent cocodiosis. And they put the weight back on again and are currently good robust ducks. So hopefully this will be the solution to prevent further deaths.

However eveytime it comes to hatching out indian runner ducks its a disaster for me. Once i gathered 28 eggs put them into an incubator and ended up with 3 ducklings at the end of it all. During incubation eggs so bad, then at the time of hatching ducklings just dont hatch or else they are too weak to carrying on breaking out. Then after hatching ive had some take seizures to which ive remedied this with a vitamin b tonic or they just end up dying randomly.

Last week i had three ducklings hatch. But one thet looked so strong went on its back and died, then another one just looked not right like dozy and eventually its breathing became like hiccups and it died. However i am left with one beautiful black and white runner who is totally fine and strong.

As well as this I am finding it so hard to come by other runner ducks to buy anf wonder if it the breed in general that is hard to keep alive i do not know.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated. As I said I love this breed so very much but it breaks my heart that it isnt going to plan.

What a sad situation. I can tell from your post how much you love your ducks and want so badly for your flock to thrive. Have you considered bringing in new genetics to improve the flock? Might be something going on there.

I've only had one hatch of ducklings aftera couple years of hatching chickens. 7/7, all fertile eggs, hatched. I used the Metzer Farms hatching guide which advocates a misting and cooling period each day for the eggs. Is this something you did with your hatch? How freshly collected were the 28 eggs? Hang in there! It will get better.

You also might want to consider reposting this in the duck section. I've noticed not too many of those peeps post in this part of the forum regularly.

This is the guide I mentioned above.
https://www.metzerfarms.com/IncubatingAndHatching.cfm

 

[Indianrunner123]

What a sad situation. I can tell from your post how much you love your ducks and want so badly for your flock to thrive. Have you considered bringing in new genetics to improve the flock? Might be something going on there.

I've only had one hatch of ducklings aftera couple years of hatching chickens. 7/7, all fertile eggs, hatched. I used the Metzer Farms hatching guide which advocates a misting and cooling period each day for the eggs. Is this something you did with your hatch? How freshly collected were the 28 eggs? Hang in there! It will get better.

You also might want to consider reposting this in the duck section. I've noticed not too many of those peeps post in this part of the forum regularly.

This is the guide I mentioned above.
https://www.metzerfarms.com/IncubatingAndHatching.cfm

Hello, through the years ive had different genetics. At first i started with a pair and i got ducklings from them which i kept however some of those ducklings died. Then the original duck was take by a fox. I got a new duck after that...then at one stage i swapped my white flock with a fawn flock of a drake and two ducks. Then i travelled an hour to get the loveliest two white ducks an drake. But witb alll of these it was the same story, sooner or later they did not thrive.

Years ago we kept and successful bred many many call ducks howevrt with these runner ducks it a different story.

My brother knows all about the incubator after using it for years so i always ensure when ducks eggs are in it to keep it at the right humidity by spraying them and filling the water channel. When collecting them i try to keep eggs one week before pitting them in the incubator.

Many thanks!

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Hmm. Interesting. If you're successfully raised call ducks (which I've heard are tricky little buggers) I'm not sure what's up. Your questions would be best put to the experts. Are you on Facebook? There a many breed specific groups that could probably answer your questions to a tee.