Mandarin Ducks / Various breeds from Appleyards to Indies, Crested, Hookbills and more....
Be warned...once you cross the webbed line...there is nothing stopping you from sliding further in the pond!
Ruddy Shels, Australian Black Swans...oh the fun to be had, with the WEBS, eh?
I will attempt to answer some of your questions and project a few you might have.
Understand, the topic of waterfowl and incubation/hatching could fill encyclopedias full of interesting, chit chat information. Unfortunately, during this time of year, we all are extremely busy doing and not really stopping much to pause to "teach." So you are not gonna get my full attentions as I am 100% totally distracted with other endeavours but I will attempt to give you some info on how I do things...most likely unique in many, many ways...but at least you'll have a take on what I do and the reasons why. I have been raising up waterfowl for over fifteen years...my spouse and I have a combination of over 90 years experience with poultry, livestock and canines...we do what we do because it suits us and our ways. Take all this with a heavy dose of your own good judgement. What works for us, may not work for others and that be that!
I think the best approach is to consider waterfowl a classification of BIRDS with feathers but past that, consider them to be different than landfowl; they do not share the same environment (don't see a Junglefowl in the swamp and should not really see a Mallard thriving in the jungle--happier swamp bound!) or all of the habits but indeed SOME.
Even how a duck perceives the world is different than other birds. A chicken has to tilt its head to look above...a sitting duck may see just as well sideways as upwards. Since every thing seems to enjoy EATING ducks...it only makes sense that a duck (being a delicious prey animal) has incredible visual abilities. Another item that makes them different than chicken chicks is a duckling's ability to LEAP straight up and outta danger's way. What might contain a chick or poult, may indeed not contain leaping ducklings. You will note I have weighted down certain brooders to contain the ducks within.
FTD...
So let's attack some of your proposed questions here...
Quote:
There are many factors that decide the ultimate resulting greatest number of duck ducks hatched, viable and thriving! VBG
In the parent stocks, items like the genetics in aspects such as prepotency to be vigorous, fertility, production, even disease resistance all are factors regarding how many babes they will have...and funny things like does the hen like the drake you have chosen for her offspring! LOL - yes girl ducks can be just as picky about their mates as chicken hens!
Here's a Call bill l00kin' to bust on out!
One significant factor in the hatching of ducks over chickens is the shape of their proboscis (elongated protruding beak in chickens and bill in waterfowl)...whilst both will have an egg tooth to assist busting outta their egg shells, the chicken has better equipment than ducks. So...you need to ensure you are feeding your parent birds VERY well...allowing the mothers to pick and choose from a very nutritious variety of foods.
Day old Ancona patterned Calls
You can go read my feeding poultry article on my web page in the Tales from Rat World for further information on all the requirements for waterfowl to pack into their eggs to ensure that last portion of their race to bust out is successful. If you find you have a lot of "deads in the shell" I would suspect you need to re-evaluate what you are feeding and what you are using as foundation stocks. Now keep in mind, it could be a weak line you have acquired or a line not designed to thrive and prosper--even just at your house...because each and everyone of us has unique ways to do what we do and of course, where each one of us lives! You need a line of birds that does well with you in particular.
Mixture of marble grits and oyster shell
I always have soluable and non-soluable grits out for my birds. Soluable is the oyster shell to provide calcium for egg shells...non or insoluable grit is for grinding up foods since there are NO toothy grins on them bird birds. We purchase marble aggregate designed for birds to consume. We get snow and ice which would limit access to grit in winter so I figure if we provide rubber bowls of it in their pens all year, there is no reason why the birds cannot process their feed to the best of their abilities.
No. 1 size for bantam ducks, No. 2 for medium sized birds and No. 3 for geese and swans. Babies get No. 1 sprinkled on food from day 1 onwards. Not oyster shell until they are fully fledged out and in adult pens.
I note a HUGE increase in oyster shell consumption in my birds when they are ramping up and during egg production. Never EVER had any issues with what some say is calcium killing, say their male birds. Most all our birds die of old age as in ducks are passing at 15+ years of age. During autopsies and during processing for consumption, NEVER had any calcium build in the organs. My birds have access to oyster shell free choice and so far for us, they are making good choices of when to have calcium and when not to.
For best egg shell production (our Chantecler eggs were entered in an egg judging contest and the judge proclaimed our shells where the most impressive and best produced of all the entries), ensure your hens have access to shade AND direct sunshine (vitamin D) to assist with all the components needed to make good egg shells.
OK...once you got feeding your foundation parent stocks figured out...let's look at egg collection.
Various waterfowl eggs here
Australian Black Swan egg...my first ever this year!
Unlike landfowl eggs, waterfowl eggs have a protective coating on their shells that we would quite rather like to leave on the egg. I am NOT an advocate for sterilization and sanitation that would be anything to write and brag about! LOL More a judicious neglect kind of person, more natural as in what would a duck hen have as a situation in the wild and try to mimic that since the hen will almost always show up our artificial incubation methods to shameful disparity! Remember there is no incubator created to mimic the oily coating (even off chickens and turkeys!) given off Momma's plumage on to the incubating eggs.
Calls in chocolate (hmm, choco!) and blue
So try to have her nest as clean and tidy as you can manage. We use oat straw exclusively with all our birds so I make sure to provide ample, clean fresh straw for nesting sites. No special nesting containers like with my chickens, a duck will be quite happy to make her nest in a quiet, not too busy corner in the run--usually in the shade as she knows she is going to be spending LOTS of time sitting there, day and night.
A duck approaches life knowing things want to eat them...so they can be skittish, seem nervous at times...simply because you have not kept them in conditions where they feel safe. A duck has no real defences (bills, duck wing slaps, and their toe nails are not too scary, eh?) past being hidden (duck hens blend well into their surroundings thanks to camouflage feather patterns and the ability to remain stationary for long periods of time) or flying away. Since we choose to contain waterfowl, flying away is not an option for the frightened or dissatisfied duck...you'll know when you got everything to their likings when they want to make more of themselves. I have no real set egg laying time with most of my ducks...unless it is forty below or they are moulting--only then do I usually not see them laying eggs. I kind of laugh because many have breeds like the Call Ducks and try to say they are "seasonal" egg layers---HA HA---well not here they ain't. I get Call Duck eggs late into the fall (October) and they begin laying clutches beginning in December with some stopping about now to moult from winter plumage to summer outfits. Ducks, ducks and yet more ducks!
If your Runners are from a good egg laying strain, you can expect any where from 150 to 300 eggs per year. But if not a good line, no worries, I am sure what they give you will suffice to run you outta duck keeping room!
One SPECIAL thing that I do is allow the duck hens to choose their nesting spots and I make sure and leave ONE sacrificial egg in place (marked with a sharpie-nfi- permanent felt pen with big "X"'s so I know which one it is)...you can also use a rock shaped the right size to the breed of waterfowl you have but leave ONE egg in her chosen spot.
What duck hens will do is experiment and TEST the spot they think they want to set up a nest in recalling how DELICIOUS ducks can be of course!
Now if you keep taking her eggs, she is no dumb cookie and she is going to keep moving to different spots trying her very best to find a safer place to lay her clutch and then go broody and incubate that clutch to full hatching term. Ducks can and do in the wild lose entire clutches (sometimes the predator not only gets the eggs but Momma too!) and the duck hens still manage to lay another second clutch if perhaps they lose their eggs to a predator. This is one of the reasons why we can collect more than a clutch (usually about 6 to 8 eggs on say a bantam duck--more for a species like Muscovies!) of eggs from waterfowl...they have a Plan B!
Not so FRESH Eggers!
If you want her to incubate the eggs, I would leave her nest completely alone...she will choose the site, cover the eggs with straw (if you proved adequate bedding), some girls will tear out chest down nearer the time they want to set tight and begin incubation...provide her with a rubber pan of water some distance away (so she doesn't awkwardly tip it over on her nest and make a mess or make muck mud pies either!) for the entire bottom half of her body dunking (wild hens will go for a quick dip and a dump, food and a drink and back to their nesty duties!)...she adds more humidity to her eggs because she goes for a swim and comes back with wet chest and belly feathers which she applies to the egg clutch. You will have to decide if the drake will bother her or leave her to incubate the eggs. Will he stand guard and provide encouragement...some male ducks are utter idiots about being a decent Dad and think it is OK to breed the hen and smash the eggs and just cause general mayhem & turmoil (she needs quiet calm secluded happy happy). Whilst other males are stellar partners in the relationship...you have to observe and make the call on what is best for the future expectations of potential ducklings.
Average duck covers 8 to 14 eggs and Muscovies (Cairina moschata) average 16 to 20 (different species of duck than Runners which are from Mallards - Anas platyrhynchos - a dabbling duck breed).
If natural hatching (and think you are not, but using an incubator?), let the duck hen choose how many eggs to cover...hopefully she is sensible and chooses a nice adequate number. I would sooner have four strong ducklings than six weaklings. If a hen decides to set on too many eggs, every egg can be then lost because each one is heated and then consecutively chilled which weakens and taxes a developing duckling.
Buster at work
Hmm...why do you want to set the max for all to hatch at the same time? When I hatch eggs in my Sportsman (nfi), I set eggs every day during the week (not the weekend though...I want to go for cruises with Rick on the weekends...do loser laps in the trucks and forget about hatching ducks for two dazes!).
I use green grocery bins for brooders and hatch continuously and put all ages together (separating sizes as they grow and of course, the different species...as in turk poults in one, heavy ducklings in another, bantam ducks, standard chickens, bantam chickens, pheasants, etc.). I abhor HUGE all at once hatchings...it takes the entire fun outta my routine to have like this mass of babies...dribbles and drabs is how I hatch them out but no matter, each to their own.
Various ducklings...Mohawk striped yeller one is Appleyard (heavy), there is Crested (medium) and Calls (bantam)
I laugh at the concept of "lock down" and consider this an "internet" invention meant to keep idiots out of the incubators. If that sounds rude I consider the whole concept of lockdown simply RUDE towards the better interests of the birds being hatched out. Especially with waterfowl (that sometimes need a nice extra squirt of distilled water) and setting a continuous supply of hatching eggs in my bator named Buster...I go thru the eggs daily and remove the ones pipping to hatching containers I place on the top shelf in secured hatching containers. As the hatched ones become viable and don't need to be in the incubator, out to the brooder bins they go. Lock down to me is hilarious and utterly UNnecessary but again...each to their own here. I just laugh at the idea that I can't sort my hatching eggs from my incubating eggs!
This duckling is screwed....that's a wing, a web and a bill and how is it now to use its bill to bust out?
Assisted to get out, did this blue bibbed Call deserve to die because we practised ridiculous LOCKDOWN?
Reserve in Breed - 2006
This is Rosy, Blue Fawn Call Hen...my first poultry show and she takes the very first in North America Reserve in Call Duck Breed...as an UNrecognized variety back in 2006! Totally against the sanctioned show rules...but she is what she is and obviously, I guess that proves I must be doing something right?
Two daughters of Rosy's - Blue Fawn and Grey Call Ducklings as day olds
Some people advocate raising ducks on wire. I will never do that. Not natural and we feel that birds are to be raised on the ground...it is the natural and decent thing to do. Wire hurts their feet, is unnatural, does not allow them to live a normal existence and very much mimics what many commercial factory farms do when raising masses of poultry...blick and blah! Again, my take on a topic regarding ducks. Now if you DO insist on raising them on wire...ensure you buy the kind of coated wire made for that, not use something like bare hardware cloth. There are toxins that leach out of hardware cloth and will compromise your birds' health. We use hardware cloth for pens but never for flooring or where the wire is in constant contact with moisture to leach out nasty residues.
So you have fed your birds up right, provided the right conditions for her to comfy like to lay plentiful numbers of eggs, you have provided a clean nest for undirty eggs (leave that waterfowl coating on the eggs, but if they are filthy...why yes, wash that crapola off the egg with mildly warmer water than the temperature of the egg)...a few stuck pieces of straw can sometimes be flicked off with a finger nail but try to keep the egg as is presented by the hen. Now to address what to do with the bounty of quackberries!
Storage of duck eggs for incubation is similar to landfowl.
LENGTH OF STORAGE HATCHABILITY PERCENTAGE
1 to 7 days 71%
8 to 14 days 64%
15 to 21 days 47%
22 to 28 days 18%
These are AVERAGES for several thousand eggs...keep in mind, there are always exceptions to the rules and so many variables on hatchability it could make your head spin.
General accepted rule of thumb is not to keep eggs for more than ten days (so you are correct there!). Think of what the duck hen will do...she will lay an egg every other day, her clutch size on day ten would be about 5 or so eggs...look at the size of your girls and guesstimate how many eggs that body of hers can cover (yes, yes...there are female birds that will sit on sections of eggs and manage huge hatches like thirty babes but I am talking realistically with ducks of Mallard descent here!). That helps you estimate the optimal number of eggs she would lay and then go setty upon. Often a duck hen will hatch ALL the eggs she lays if everything jives of course...push it past the optimal and simply put, some eggs that are set don't make it full term to hatch out ducklings.
Ideal storage temperature is 55 to 65F for eggs to be stored ten days and less. Longer than ten days, then 48 to 52F. Keep the temperature CONSTANT. Stored NOT in direct sunshine and in a cool and humid place--basement or cool garage work well. Duck eggs that are stored tend to be less hatchable than chicken eggs by 10 to 15%. Average hatching of duck eggs overall when artificially incubated is 65 to 85% and from all fertilized eggs, 75 to 95%. I candle my hatching eggs at day seven and toss any clears. We often get cold and frost (snow any and all months of the year too!), so a few clears is not biggy since the egg could have gotten chilled.
The shorter the time period you store the hatching eggs, the better the hatch rate is--why I set eggs continuously once my hatching season is underway.
Duck eggs stored for 10 to 14 days proved the following rates of hatchability:
38 to 40F (61% hatchable)
60 to 62F (73%)
76 to 82F (42%)
Box of Quackers - Bantam Ducklings
Some people turn their stored hatching eggs...this matters when storing hatching eggs for longer than five days. By turning the eggs, hatchability was increased by 3 to 15%.
Chantecler chicken eggs in egg basket
What do I do, heh heh heh...I store my eggs before I turn on Buster in egg flats, cartons and sometimes just in wire egg baskets. I don't turn them and quite frankly, treat them with far less respect than many would but then again, I have a TON of birds and a resulting TON of hatching eggs and I'm busy enjoying what I is my hobby, not my JOB or something that pays for anything here--not for profit endeavour that costs $$ to do. So I figure whatever seems to SURVIVE me and my ways are tough. Touch DUCKS indeed. I have hatched THOUSANDS of birds successfully and there is a huge cost at being too successful because the more that hatch, the more resources to sink into that black hole of a fun time, eh?
I know, not what you might want...but then again, this is all about what I do, oui?
I don't cuddle, coddle or cradle crapola...so I by virtue of my judicious neglect, ensure the birds I produce are gonna survive me, moi, Tara the Terrible. LOL
So you got ducklings on the ground, here are some duckling pointers...
Calls in brooder bins, note all the use of marbles...even in their food to entice billing and eating!
Hatching supplies from egg candler to rubberized cupboard mat for making nonslip footing in containers that you toss when soiled.
The ongoing mantra of a day old duckling is to drown itself. When you realize that light bulb moment...knowing you put dollar store purchased smooth marbles in their water dispensers and only putting enough water (unlike landfowl who exhibit better constraints when it comes to decisions about making muddy puddles) that if they get messing about, will not be a catastrophic MESS! I will suggest you also read my Keeping Bantam Ducks in Winter article on my website so I don't have to repeat what I have already written there. Lots of good pointers in that one.
Heated water bucket, puck board top, five gallon pail cut down and fit around a heated water bucket with foam insulation sprayed inside the gap and dried, cut off with hand saw for a flat bottom. NOTE the rubber mud flap under bucket to inhibit dabbling in sand base of pen and avoiding the ducks filing the bucket with bills full of SAND! Always something they are up to...no good FTDs!
Note coffee can with mixed grits on top to stop individual ducks from perching ON bucket and drinking and crapping in the water container.
Call ducks demo-ing the heated water bucket in use
Use of rubber mud flaps UNDER water dispensers in outdoorish pens is a wonderful recommendation as is the use of oat straw to lift them up and outta the potential wetness. Ducks play in water and love it but will quickly become miserable muddy messes if left to a never ending supply of water and confined conditions. After mucking about at the lake or stream or puddle duck pond...a pair of ducks flies away and leaves the mess behind. When natural habitats for waterfowl are overcrowded...the result is sickness, disease and often leads to dead ducks...so keep the numbers down, keep them in a supply of refreshments but supply too much and you'll see the negatives to ducks drawn to water sports! Keep in mind the water balance...a duck needs water to swallow its food...it will choke, its nostrils will clog and if no water is present, they will not consume adequate rations. Can I tell you the right ratio of how much water? NOPE...every situation is different and you are going to have to learn when and what to do yourself. You'll know when there it too much water = messy messy and too little and the ducks will not be plump widdle butter balls of happiness!
Rations for natural hatched goslings set out in their pen...
Chopped romaine lettuce, water with marbles, middle stainless is waterfowl starter mixed with yoghurt and hard boiled egg yolk, and far right is just starter. Left and right containers, all in stainless puppy pans so less spillage. Yeh, so daze I feel like I work for a zoo...
Calls - offered food (egg yolk) and water while still in incubator
A good start for ducklings is to boil up some eggs (any species of egg really will do!) and feed them some cooled hard boiled egg yolk. I also will do a feeding with all my baby birds with some human yoghurt (puts good bugs in the guts I feel) mixed with waterfowl starter.
Chocolate Magpie patterned Call Ducks
Day old hatchlings on lawn
Careful on any greens like grass...they can be let out even as day olds on a nice warm day (with shade accessible so they can manage their internal temperatures) on the lawn but think when they nip grass, they are tearing off tiny pieces...so if you feed any greens, sliver the greens into tiny pieces so you do not cause crop impaction. Long grasses bind up in a ball and plug the bird up...it literally starves to death.
I will NEVER feed landfowl starter to waterfowl and NEVER medicated foods to waterfowl. Others can go about doing this but I'll never ever do that! Waterfowl requires a huge host of different amounts of items than landfowl (see my Poultry Ration article to compare ration listings).
Angel wing is a condition where waterfowl wing feathers grow in backwards. Sometimes called "protein wing" because the wing feathers grow quicker (access to rich foods) than the ligaments or structure of the wing can support...you get draggy wings and it is a pretty ugly condition which makes it so the ducks cannot fly properly--you CAN tape the wing in place but far better to avoid the condition than to try and fix it after the fact. I will watch as my ducklings begin to feather out and when I see chest feathers, start to watch for wingy feathers to start peaking out...ensure the ducklings are on a bit of adult waterfowl pelleted rations by then (first signs of feather growth should clue you in these are not baby birds so much any more, but juveniles that require LESS protein leveled foods!) along with whole grains like hard, red wheat and of course, the best feather makers, whole heavy oats. Oats is a great thing to feed birds that are moulting or beginning to make feathers. Oats can also be used to defatten large waterfowl like geese and even turkeys that need to lose some extra weight to be able to breed naturally. Your intent is not to starve or make your ducklings lose weight so much as to ensure the time period whilst making those wing feathers is slow and steady so the wing feathers grow in properly but not too fast. I usually start with 1/3 whole oats in the mixed rations of the wing feather growing ducklings. Now some lines no matter WHAT you do will develop angel wing. In my personal experience, I only say this a few times with waterfowl we imported from the States...not hatched by us and those ones have NEVER thrown the same condition in their offspring...so not sure if it had something to do with the incubation period doing this but no matter...feed whole oats and hedge your bets on NO protein wing showing up.
Keep the widdle blighters away from water for swimming (don't need it to be a duck!) until the weather is nice and warm (conducive to getting wet and with LOTS of time for drying off and re-oiling feathers before dark and when it gets chilly) and your ducks have body feathers and are fully using their oiling preen gland (located at the base of their tails). A duck will drown just as quick as a chicken without oiling up its feathers and if it has no feathers and no mother to provide floating on the water oils...dead ducklings are your results. Momma Duck also commands the ducklings to git outta the water, so regulates how much fun is good and how much excess, not so much!
When you incubate ducklings, YOU become MOMMA DUCK! Ha ha ha...oh to be a bird brain, eh?
When my ducklings are growing well, I remove them from the green bin brooders and move them to a stainless steel tub in the Duece Coop for brooding.
As your ducklings get older (and bigger and more sensible!), you will find they are less inclined to LEAP up as much and will settle and become calmer when you disturb them to feed and water. You mean happy things, so they learn to appreciate you working with them.
These are Chantecler chickens growing out in the stainless tub.
Items specific to Runners...I have only ever had a white large coarse Runner drake. We don't consume excessive amounts of duck eggs (if at all), so having too many ducks that are egg layers, I never saw the point of too many of them because to make those tons of eggs, they need to eat lots of feed--a sensible expectation, what goes in, comes out (input/output). Lots of eggs for consumption is a good thing if you have an extended use for duck eggs...to me I have enough eggs with the current breeds we have and adding an "egg layer" like the Runner just is too much! The Hookbills and Crested along with the Appleyards are eggy enough for us. Tee hee...
Runner ducks have one of the firmest of feathers of all the domestic ducks. This means they are not as weather tolerant as other breeds are to temperature extremes of hot or cold. A bit softer feather and better insulative coat of protection. Not to say they can't tolerate the cold but maybe not as well as the ducks that resemble the Mallard more.
The exhibition Runner should resemble a wine bottle with feet. I am told that the truly good exhibition Runners have difficulty hatching at the end of the stint inside their egg prison because of their "long necks" and "curvatious bills"; both of which would inhibit decent breaking out of the egg shells.
Note, the long necks and bills of my Dutch Hookbills - as youngsters, they do resemble Runner Ducks somewhat too!
I have seen this happen with some of the Dutch Hookbills...the ducklings are tired when coming out of the egg and require longer time brooding to recover so I do feed them egg yolk and let them have more time to get more viable than other breeds. They too have long necks and less than ideal for busting outta egg bills. Bill shape in the exhibition Call Ducks is a hindrance too for the trying to hatch ducklings, wide short bills instead of the more long, slender PECKY bills of Nature's perfect duck, the Mallard. The more coarse and UNbreed like, the more likely breeds like Calls and Runners will be to easily escape the confines of their egg shells. LOL
It is us humans that dictate these non-natural requirements in the more "exhibition" like specimens. The more we see the birds veer away from the more natural and wild type forms, the more "hiccups" one can expect with them, right?
Best wishes for a successful hatch...and remember to respectfully FTD!
Doggone & Chicken UP!
Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
- Edited to add more things to my post.
