28 days tomorrow, our khaki cambell has been sitting on her nest

[mkeilman]

27 days and counting...Our little khaki cambell girl has been steadfast so far on her nest, by my calculations tomorrow is hatch day, I'm nervous, but optimistic. I tried candeling two eggs, but couldn't make heads or tails of what I was looking at. :/ Hope to post pics of baby duckies soon.

 

[Duckopolis]

Good luck with your hatch. I hope you get a lot of new babies! How many eggs is she sitting on?

 

[DucksnDaffodils]

Good luck with your hatch. I hope you get a lot of new babies! How many eggs is she sitting on?

Oh hope they hatch!! It can be so nerve racking waiting. Patience!!

 

[mkeilman]

First (and only, so far) hatchling arrived today (4-4-14, 7:00pm est) Fumbling through it.( all of us)...not sure if I should intervene.... I hooked up our baby moniter to the coop yesterday so we could watch the live action. I heard peeps and saw commotion so i ran out. the baby was in the middle of the coop, wet, peeping, daddies were present ( inadvertanly), i quickly seperated, but they had seemed genunally concerned, maybe even ...proud?! I plugged in the heat lamp and moved the baby "next" to momma duck, wasn't sure if he was supposed to be underneath her or not....baby's been there since, still peeping as I write this so guess he's okay? Momma duck appears very calm, very resolute, wasn't affected by my presence or daddies presence or me trying to o shove her baby back on her nest (11eggs total) . Hoping someone will read this and have some advise about what I ( and or momma duck) shoud expect/do? All in all, crazy day

 

[DucksnDaffodils]

First (and only, so far) hatchling arrived today (4-4-14, 7:00pm est) Fumbling through it.( all of us)...not sure if I should intervene.... I hooked up our baby moniter to the coop yesterday so we could watch the live action. I heard peeps and saw commotion so i ran out. the baby was in the middle of the coop, wet, peeping, daddies were present ( inadvertanly), i quickly seperated, but they had seemed genunally concerned, maybe even ...proud?! I plugged in the heat lamp and moved the baby "next" to momma duck, wasn't sure if he was supposed to be underneath her or not....baby's been there since, still peeping as I write this so guess he's okay? Momma duck appears very calm, very resolute, wasn't affected by my presence or daddies presence or me trying to o shove her baby back on her nest (11eggs total) . Hoping someone will read this and have some advise about what I ( and or momma duck) shoud expect/do? All in all, crazy day

Oh so glad 1 hatched!!! I had this same trouble with my duck last summer, and I handled it completely wrong, and ended up with only 1 duckling (who sadly ended up drowning later) Hard lessons to learn. So my advice would be if you can somehow set up a little fencing around momma and nest and possibly put a little food and water (very shallow dish or chick waterer) in the area. That way Momma can stay on her nest and hopefully hatch out 11 more babies! and little junior can't run away and worry you or momma. Junior peeping and scrambling about will actually encourage his brother and sisters to come on out. He should be plenty warm enough sitting by her, and might slip underneath her at times which is fine.

Let us know how things go!

 

[mkeilman]

Thank you so much for that suggestion! I'm a nervous nelly...so she hatched six eggs total through last night, was up all night watching the action on my baby monitor ! So awsome to watch!! I put in a chick waterer and starter pellets with momma and ducklings, but worried cause momma won't leave her spot on the nest. At All! All day! I assume she's waiting for the rest of the eggs to hatch. Tonight I Brought her a small dish of water held it to her face and she started to drink finally, three of the babies followed suit, but the other three were hiding under momma. Now I wonder if these other eggs are duds? Should I get rid of them, to motivate her off the nest and start bringing the babies to water and food? Is there a possibly the other eggs could hatch still? Just not sure what to do....

 

[mkeilman]

For the record, I have a chick waterer and starter pellets in the coop with them, along with two shallow dishes of water...she just won't budge from her nest

 

[DucksnDaffodils]

I think her not budging from the nest is rather normal. It's great that she and some of the babies got a drink (and 4 babies!!!!! Hooray!!!!!) I think I would wait a day or 2 more, to give the late eggs a chance, maybe if she will let you pick them up and listen/look for any signs of life. After 2 days though I THINK you would be safe to take away the eggs and try to encourage Momma to take her babies out. If she is really stubborn you might have to take her babies outside, then gently physically remove her from the nest and plunk her down next to them. But again I would wait a couple days for that, as long as she and the babies have water available to them, they should be fine. Besides ducklings can go a few days after hatching without food, just living off the leftover yolk. Hope everything goes well!

 

[mkeilman]

My poor attempt at taking a pic. Not even sure if it uploaded....

 

[DucksnDaffodils]

Aww sweet babies!!! How many do you have now? And what breed are they. I love listening to the Mommy noises of a momma duck with her babies. So sweet.