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I know several call breeders that use East Indie hens to hatch out their calls, or wood ducks...in the believe that the humidity is going to be better on the hatching eggs than using a chicken. I like to use LF wyandottes to set my call eggs..my Blue Wyandottes are broody machines, I normally put the call eggs in the redwood incubator first, pull out the fertile eggs after about 4-5 days and put them under the hens, I will mist the eggs under the chicken once a day. The I pull the eggs about 3 days before hatch and put them in the hatcher, one pain is the fact that the date on the egg (that is written with a pencil) will rub off while under a chicken..so you need to use a grease pen...some use a Sharpie, but I worry about the chemicals in the sharpie killing the embroy..probably doesnt..but hey call eggs are hard enough to hatch without taking chances..
I have been told that what I do is backwards..that I should place the eggs under the chicken as my first step, then put them in the incubator, but our system works for us. We will hatch out 100 ducklings in a bad season, 300 in a good year...but understand they we have well over 100 breeders. I will set up 15 Butterscotch breeding pens alone...probably about the same number for the Whites, and 4 pens for the Grays....
We normally set up a big plastic bin with a light on our coffee table in the living room and that is where our just hatched call for the first 3-4 days, we have problems with some of the duckings flipping over on their back..which as you know means they will die if they lay there on their back for very long. The good ones are so round that they have problems with flipping over, one thing that seems to help with the flipping is not getting in a hurry to pull them out of the incubator...we will leave the hatched ducklings in the hatcher for at least 2 days before pulling them out and putting them in the brooder...this seems to really cut down on the number of ducklings dying on us.
We do dig them out of the eggs....some breeders wont do this, saying it hurts your breeding program in the long run. We have found that the good ones just wont hardly make it out of the shell, the pet quality call ducklings just zip right out of the shell...the duckling destined to be short billed round balls just struggle to get out. My wife Rebecca is a pro at digging them out and has it down to a science...it normally takes her about 24 hours to get one out. If I try to dig them out...well its a mess and they never make it out alive.
Jerry
Whatever you are doing that works...keep on doing. That is the way I roll...hahaha There are variables that some people don't think of because they are too ridged in their thinking. Things that work for you might not work for me and visa versa. I do whatever works here. Same goes for helping them out. If you can do it and they are viable, do it, those ducklings are valuable. No one gets hundreds of ducklings from a trio of Calls, but some people think they should.
Walt
I had to help one of our ducklings out last year.. he is the smallest roundest guy out in the yard too, he would never have hatched on his own. I only had a trio then, and hatched 8...felt pretty good about all that, 'cause it was my first season of hatching. Lost 12 in an incubator, and that was really hard. Then hatched 3 under silkies and 5 under the momma call. Both females raised those 5--which was kind of fun to watch. This year I have above ground pens to put them in, and a better incubator.. and those lil silkies are going broody already so I am looking forward to more little fuzzy ducklings soon!
Linda~I love reading your posts! You shine through in your words
Very fun to read.
