Ancona Ducks

[ChristineR]

They are super cute.  I put 42 in the incubator on the 13th and 35 are looking good.  I am a high school chemistry teacher and we are hatching them in two biology classes and the bio teachers are going to try to supplement their genetics unit with some investigations on the ancona colors.  It is surprising you have no black ducklings.  From what I have read black is the dominate gene so even if your black girls are heterogeneous you should get half of your babies to be black no matter what color your drake.  If your drake is black 3/4 of your babies should be black.  I am running two breeding pools one with a penciled drake (didn't want to use him but he was the only non black drake I got last year), black girl, brown girl, light grey girl, dark grey girl, and a buff girl and the second is just a black drake with a grey girl.  He is a beatiful black drake with great green sheen and chest spots but i am trying to figure out if he is homogeneous or heterogeneous.  If he is only going to give me black ducklings then he will have to be rehomed.  Have fun with your ducklings, we are anxiously waiting for ours.

Black is dominate, so yes, I was expecting some blacks. My drakes are blue and silver (I think). The only ones I hatched eggs from are the black hens and a blue hen. So either I beat the odds, or there is some color inheritance going on that I don't understand.

Kristy/AuroraSprings, your thoughts? All of these ducks came from you except for the black hens.

 

[monichica]

Florida Ancona Lovers! I have 5 babies (big babies but...) that need loving farm or pet homes! I am in Martin County. They are 5 weeks old...2 Black & White, Chocolate & White, Blue & White, and a Lav & White. Pretty sure 3 drake & 2 hen (by size) PM me for ?s or details~thanks!

 

[DxSOR25]

All ducklings are piping and it looks like I may get a few hatched out by tonight! A couple days early but all 11 still alive! Hoping for the best!

 

[DxSOR25]

 

[Sally Sunshine]

 

[DxSOR25]

5 hatched so far!

 

[DxSOR25]

Quick update if anyone cares.. I have 6 hatched.. 2 are almost out! But other shells are blocking them.. Hope they can push through.. One has piped a nice sized hole but not much yet and what I can see its got some dark markings.. The other 2 are hard to tell cause I'm not in there to see if they piped or not.. 6 possibly 9 out of 11 would be great ratio for me! As I really plan to keep 3 females and a male or 2 if I can!

I want to also give a shout out to the farm I purchased the eggs from if that's okay? I got them from WOWSA farms in NC! They have great customer service and great ducks from what I have so far! Thanks to them..

Lastly here's another pic for all you pic lovers!

 

[DxSOR25]

how do you all fight the urge not to help out the ones trying to get out lol.. i feel like the shells from the hatched ones are holding it in lol..

and a question for you all.. they were placed in feb 28th.. so they actually hatched 3 days early.. the 2 eggs that might not have pips should i wait til the 28th day? i dont wanna leave the hatched ones in there for more than 36-48 hours.. any ideas? do you think they are a lost cause.. i candled them 2 nights ago and all were alive and moving inside!

thanks everyone for any input..

-derek

 

[ChristineR]

how do you all fight the urge not to help out the ones trying to get out lol.. i feel like the shells from the hatched ones are holding it in lol..

and a question for you all.. they were placed in feb 28th.. so they actually hatched 3 days early.. the 2 eggs that might not have pips should i wait til the 28th day? i dont wanna leave the hatched ones in there for more than 36-48 hours.. any ideas? do you think they are a lost cause.. i candled them 2 nights ago and all were alive and moving inside!

thanks everyone for any input..

-derek

You can take out the hatched ducklings and their shells and leave the rest of the eggs and/or candle them again. If you're worried about losing too much humidity, put a wet sponge or paper towel in with the remaining eggs when you close it up again.

Last weekend I opened up an egg that I thought had quit and it was still alive on the 30th day, so just be patient.

 

[eggorthechicken]

I have only hatched one set of ducks. I removed the shells after they hatched. I had one that struggled to get out so after a day of watching I finally stepped in to help. It was ready the shell seemed dry.

this is the last one that hatched. ..it was just tuckered out.