Ancona Ducks

[eggorthechicken]

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!

I also got mine from them. They are really nice. I didnt get any blac which i was surprised. I think mine are silver and a buff but i cant tell just yet...I have one that has one dark spot on the beak but thats it.

 

[DxSOR25]

Okay quick update again lol.. The ducklings were sitting on the eggs that were almost hatched so i worried it was making it harder.. I removed them and the empty shells pretty quickly and by the meter humidity didn't drop more than 3%.. So I sprayed warm water around the eggs! Within 1 to 2 minutes the other 2 hatched! That's 8 out of 11 and a few more to go!

 

[DxSOR25]

Okay quick update again lol.. The ducklings were sitting on the eggs that were almost hatched so i worried it was making it harder.. I removed them and the empty shells pretty quickly and by the meter humidity didn't drop more than 3%.. So I sprayed warm water around the eggs! Within 1 to 2 minutes the other 2 hatched! That's 8 out of 11 and a few more to go!

 

[DxSOR25]

Sorry for the double post.. This guy is struggling to get out but he's lively so I'm sure he will make it.. As for the other 3.. One pipped ill give it time.. Day 28 isn't until Thursday morning haha!

 

[DxSOR25]

I also got mine from them. They are really nice. I didnt get any blac which i was surprised. I think mine are silver and a buff but i cant tell just yet...I have one that has one dark spot on the beak but thats it.

out of the 8 that hatched so far.. 4 are black and 4 are lighter.. i think some silver and maybe buff as well.. time will tell

 

[ChristineR]

Not sure where you guys are getting the "buff" color description... I could be wrong, but I don't think buff is an Ancona color (at least not a common one)...?

 

[eggorthechicken]

No apparently its not common...breeder said he was getting this coloring in some of his this year. Not sure what it will look like so it will be interesting to watch them grow out.

 

[learycow]

Not sure where you guys are getting the "buff" color description... I could be wrong, but I don't think buff is an Ancona color (at least not a common one)...?

Agreed, it is a rare color for the anconas. But I know that some of the colors can be easy to confuse if you don't have other colors to compare them to. Like lavender and lilac, they can look similar and it can be hard to tell what you have unless you have one of each.
And when they are still babies, you can't always be sure of the color. I had some last year that didn't look like they had any coloring on them. They feathered out to be lilac, lavender, and I have one that has some really light light blue markings around her eyes but no color on her body. She will be a year old in May so I'm waiting to see if she will get any color to her as I've heard that some change a little with age.

 

[DxSOR25]

ive read that its good to have a wire floor in a duck house for ventilation for the straw and all that with the water and food and messy ducks. my question is, if you make it a wire floor how do you get inside to collect eggs or to clean? am i missing something here? i would love to building a duck house like this guy has, how does he go inside it or walk on it?

 

[ChristineR]

ive read that its good to have a wire floor in a duck house for ventilation for the straw and all that with the water and food and messy ducks. my question is, if you make it a wire floor how do you get inside to collect eggs or to clean? am i missing something here? i would love to building a duck house like this guy has, how does he go inside it or walk on it?

I would not use wire flooring in the whole duck house for full size ducks. I know some people do it, but it seems like asking for trouble with bumblefoot to me- or are you suggesting making a wire floor with straw on top?

If you're going to put water inside the house, I would make a small area in the floor with wire to set the water on.