Who's Hatching Ducks? Hatch With Us!! *Page 3*

[farmerlor]

I just hatched three Swedish ducks-two blues and a black but I'm going to need help with this next hatch. I've got Calls which Julie tells me will need help to come out of the shells and runners.....as well as turkeys, chickens and geese. Feeling a little overwhelmed here. Whatever will I do with all these duckies if they hatch? Anyway, we're just about at the halfway mark and every single duck egg is developing nicely.

 

[barnwife]

I just finished one HUGE two week hatching marathon...actually at the tail end, then next weekend it starts again... Save yourself some trouble by getting everything ready in advance. Decide how you're going to brood them...all together (a pain if you mix waterfowl with land fowl) or in separate brooders, share a light, or individual lights, separate by size, whatever.

I chose to separate by species and size.

My seramas I have in a 6 gallon aquarium with pelleted bedding mixed with shavings,

the quail are in an old gerbil cage with tons of places to hid and lots of feeding places, etc.

The ducks/goslings are in a plastic pool with pelleted bedding only...it soaks up their water mess VERY well.

the varying chicks and keets I have mixed togather according to size in tupperware tubs with shavings.

I had a box for turkeys, but my babies died after two days of what I now know was a vitamin defficiency.

I use a single 250 watt brooder in my hatching/brooding room (it used to be a spare bedroom) and position the boxes closer or farther depending on what each box needs heat wise.

I also have a hospital cage for those too weak to go in with the others.

I keep small bins of feed labeled with each diet on the outside of the container in the room, and the huge bags of feed/bins outdoors with the rest of the poultry. I move the babies to the outdoors when they start handling cooler temps better...each batch tends to go around 3-6 weeks, depending on the species.

I also keep handy saran wrap and tape (for those that almost pull their belly out coming out of the egg)
spray bottle
small pitcher of water to refill water dishes
paper towels
sanitizer spray
tweezers
sewing needle
drawer liner pre-cut to hatcher/brooder size
pen/pencil/crayon and paper to keep track of what is due when, what happendd with each hatch, what might have gone wrong, etc.


I hope this helps you with your staggered multi- species hatch!

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Just set around 21 call duck eggs. Due May 14.

 

[cici_p]

I wanna join in!
I have 8 duck eggs (crested white and white runner) that are two weeks along, all with good development (already pitched four).
I have 6 goose eggs set two days later that are *all* developing.
And so much excitement I can hardly stand it!

 

[raindrop]

Day 26 and I have 5 pips!!!

I was late in raising humidity and removing the row dividers for hatch, just did it tonight and I found the pips!
I sprayed the eggs and got out of there as fast as I could, the temperature came right back up within a few minutes, humidity is 57% and climbing.

 

[Calebs Acre]

Oh, boy, lots more people joining in! Welcome to all of you!!

I am adding photos of the group so far:

 

[TheDuckCrew]

oh no. the bator smells different today. not like the eggs are rotting, but its just not the same smell. i'm really worried! its day 8. do you think they're gone? they all smell the same...

 

[TheDuckCrew]

Quote:
so cute!!

 

[barnwife]

The smell does....evolve...shall we say. It might not be all fo the eggs, but one. WAIT. Hatching is not for the weak on this virtue....especially with ducks. and SUPER especially with geese lol.

WAIT until it becomes unbearable...adn then you will know which one it is for certain...and don't worry about exploding...even if it happens, duck eggs do best when cooled for a few minutes(as long as it takes to get the bator clean again) and then mist the eggs, and voila! clean bator, lack of stinky egg bomb.

BUT it also takes more than a day for an egg to go from dead to exploding.

 

[TheDuckCrew]

alright thank you so much. i wouldn't throw them out until i was 110% positive they were dead. its just my first hatch with my first ducks and i just love them all so much! like a first time mom! every little change worries me. its also possibly the only hatch my parents will let me do, so i really want some little duckies to pop out of those eggs!