Are Call Ducks difficult to hatch??

[TheNewMrsEvans]

With the egg carton for hatching in I just cut out holes in the bottom so the air can circulate...then into the hatcher on the nice shelf liner stuff. I think if they are strong and ready to climb out of the upright shell, then they will do fine...
Think of helping the Calls out of the egg, like a woman who needs a c-section to safely deliver her baby...not ideal, but sometimes necessary.
If you want to allow this breed to continue without changing conformation, some help may be required.
p.s. I am not trying to start anything, this is only my opinion.

 

[Featherfarmer]

I too help my calls to hatch. Once they pip I'll peel off the top part of the shell...if the veins are dried up I'll peel that part away also. But I never take the duckling out of the shell. I'll lay them back in the incubator with about 1/2 to 2/3 of the shell to protect the egg yolk until it's absorbed into his navel. This can take up to 24 hrs. Once the egg yolk is gone and they have that extra energy they'll usually kick out of the shell themselves. I have candled egg and seen them with their beaks up in the air cell. But if you open the egg then they will tend to die. And some of these will never pip and die. It's always better to have a hen or duck incubate them for best results. I have 2 silkies and a duck setting now. So we shall see how this goes!!!!

 

[hobbychicken]

I am going to try hatching call ducks within the month. Wanted to thank all of you for the information.

 

[jess5254]

I have hatched calls before I never did the cool down or misting. I use the brinsea eco advance. My very first hatch was very successful and after that went down hill, But I got my eggs from the mail. This year I have my own adult ducks I bought straight from hollderread for breeding and they have started laying already!! I have two hens and two drakes but it seems only one hen is becoming fertile at the moment. Also we have had some pretty cold weather and if I don't get the egg in time it freezes. I hate that what a waste of a good egg!! I am no expert just wanted to join the talk. I am hoping have my own calls and taking out the shipping process will increase my hatch rate. I have a notebook and calender and write down the date and time I found the egg how long it sits out to warm up and the date and time of setting in incubator. I will admit I check and keep a closer eye on these eggs than I do on any other of eggs. Thanks

 

[duckluck]

I help mine hatch as well...it's a hot button issue but you have to do what is right for your situation.

I find misting to be more necessary when you are working against humidity. Watching your air cells is key. Look at the diagram in Storey's Guide To Raising Ducks and for Calls, I would say your air cells should be just a teeny bit larger than what is shown there because Calls don't take as long as the larger breeds. Misting will dry the eggs down faster...it does not add water, it takes it away as it evaporates iot the incubator.

 

[mrsbrcant]

I just hatched my first call ducks today. I was worried I wouldn't get any but I have three out and maybe one more might make it. I started with 12 fertile, lost 4 early on. of the eight remaining, 3 died in shell late so then I had 5. Only one pipped and zipped without any help on day 28. another pipped and just died, the other two hatched with help on day 29 and I have one still in the incubator pipped but it doesn't seem quite ready to come out. I'm not sure it will make with or without help but I'm thrilled to have what appears to be 3 very active healthy little ducklings. I keep reading that call ducks hatch earlier than other ducks so when they didn't show signs of pipping by day 27 I was really stressed, but every time I candled them they were active. I didn't start trying to help them until day 28 and they had pipped internally.

 

[duckluck]

Day 25-27 is typical on my Calls, but I try to keep only show lines so they are fairly small.

 

[duckluck]

I lay all Call eggs on their sides and do a 180 turn by hand. Only mist if you need to, and to determine that you need to be watching your air cells so you will know if you need it or not. There is no "magic" in misting, it is merely done to dehydrate eggs. If your eggs are already drying down properly, which they could be in dry conditions (and I run a dry incubator until I see where things are at on day 10) you may very well kill them by misting too much if they don't need it. I run into more problems here with eggs not drying down fast enough rather than drying down too much usually, so I need to mist more. You need to know what to do, and when, and why.

 

[mrsbrcant]

I put most of them in on a Monday evening and I added 2 more on Tuesday. I didn't start helping until Monday 4 weeks later. They hatched on Tuesday so even for regular ducks it seemed like a long time. It was one of the eggs that I added on Tuesday that hatched on its own Tuesday without help. I wonder if this is because it was fresher when I added it to the incubator.

The female parent birds are from Holdereads and the drake I purchased from a backyard chickens auction. They are show quality but maybe at an entry level. I had the incubator set at 99.6 and the humidity at 50-55% until the end when I raised it up to about 75-80%. The one that hatched without help is the largest and weighs about an ounce if that. There is still one more in the incubator that is still trying to get all the way out. It is still very active but it has been a long time! It is significantly smaller than the other three.

One kept flipping over on its back so I put it in a bowl lined with tissue. The others joined it.

I have 2 more eggs developing under a broody chicken, I will see how they do. Thanks to all of you that have posted links to helpful advice, it really helps!

 

[dylan duck man]

i actually have a few call i hatched and they hatched like normal ducks bu earlyer i took like23 to24 days to hatch them i have a few call ducks