Call Ducks Finally Hatched

[clousert]

Clousert, I'm sorry about your babies.  But hopefully this next batch you will have better luck with.  Fyi, this was my second attempt at it.  First one went kinda like yours .   So keep ur chins up (my mother says that "Chins") and we will hope for good results with these!!  
And your new ones are absolutely Beautiful!!  The cool thing about Calls is they never look like a big adult duck.  They are "little" cuties at any age!!

Thanks. I really hope so too. These eggs weren't shipped through the postal service either so that should help too. Will be setting them in the incubator tonight. Fingers crossed. My favorite is the penciled so hope at least 1 hatches this time. Your 2 are just adorable. Glad you're having lots of fun with them.

 

[Lacrystol]

So Miss Lacrystol (Duck Whisperer),

hypothetically of course, if I decided to try this again, are you up for it? I mean my, in four weeks, panic attack?
Come back, stop running stop!!

You can come out, I didn't say for certain.....

BRING IT ON, I SAY. WOOOO HOOOO!!!!!

 

[Lacrystol]

Me too. Me too!! My little baby quit on me yesterday. Not sure what happened. Good news is, my parents were at their time share in NC and the breeder I got my eggs shipped from is in SC. So... on their way home today they were nice enough to stop at the breeder's to pick me up some wittle duckies of my own

. They are not as little as Starkasm's but they're beautiful and someday I will have some itty bits of my own. The breeder was nice enough to give them the eggs he had collected this week also. The buff hen was also nice enough to lay me one in her box that my parents brought her home in lol. So I have 7 new eggs to put into the incubator tomorrow. The breeder didnt have a penciled hen that he was willimg to sell so I'm REALLY hoping that I can hatch at least 1 out of the 2 penciled eggs he sent. Here are a few pictures of my new additions though

Beautiful DUCKS. WOW

 

[Starkasm]

BRING IT ON, I SAY. WOOOO HOOOO!!!!!

Whew! I was a little worried when you didn't answer...cause I talked to the guy that I got the original eggs from, yesterday and he said yes! He would sell me some more
Tee hee!! I'm excited!
I'll let you know when I get them so you can count down when to hide!

 

[Lacrystol]

Clousert WHAT happened? What day were you on? and what methods are you using? I have a certain way I hatch call ducks and it seems to work very well for them as well as hatching out other types of ducks.

a lot of things people don't understand about ducks and trying to hatch them is, they try to treat them the exact same way as a chicken and to be successful you can't do that. There are certain rules to the game that needs to be met, Now I'm no expert nor am I trying to be a smart pants or anything, can only give you my knowledge of what works for me after attempting and attempting and attempting it. LOL

After all these attempts, made me really realize DANG this guys are hard. But I was up for the challenge, now after successfully hatching 52 calls in which I have 24 of my own, I think I beat the system. LOL

So give me your method you can PM me and will see what needs to be different and a possible motive on getting better results..

 

[Lacrystol]

Whew! I was a little worried when you didn't answer...cause I talked to the guy that I got the original eggs from, yesterday and he said yes! He would sell me some more
Tee hee!! I'm excited!
I'll let you know when I get them so you can count down when to hide!

What's your method in incubating.

 

[Lacrystol]

If ANYONE of you guys come across a Magpie let me know, I would love to add a magpie to my flock of calls.

 

[clousert]

If ANYONE of you guys come across a Magpie let me know, I would love to add a magpie to my flock of calls.

Will do on the magpie. I would love to have a pair of them too and a blue bibbed pair.

The little guy was on day 12 when he stopped. For incubating I used my homemade incubator. It keeps temp btwn 99.1 and 99.7 (kicks on at 99.1 and shuts off at 99.7). I let the eggs sit for 24 hrs after they arrived (large end up). I ran it at about 25% humidity. I have a tin pan with 2 sponges on the bottom for when I need to raise humidity at hatch time. Then a floor made of hardware cloth over top of that. I laid the eggs in a small plastic basket with slits cut down the sides that I drilled about 40 or so 1/2" holes in covering the bottom. I hand turned the eggs 3 times a day. I think that my mistakes were that I started turning and misting right away. I've since read that many people don't turn shipped eggs for a few days and don't start misting until day 10. The ones that I set tonight were not shipped but were still driven from SC to FL. The air sacs are all intact but I'm thinking that I'm still going to wait a few days before I start turning them and no misting this time until later. Any suggestions you have would be much appreciated.

I'm still house and pet sitting for my parents until tomorrow so my new call babies are out here on her back screened porch. They are so dang cute. I'm loving the penciled one!! I ended up getting him for free because he's missing an eye but he's still so adorable. He hangs out with the buff pair mostly and the butterscotch pair hang out on their own. The buff have longer necks then shows do but the butterscotch are perfect. The buff drake is a brute and is definitely the dominant one of the 5. I just love them already!!!

Thanks again for all of your help!

 

[Starkasm]

If ANYONE of you guys come across a Magpie let me know, I would love to add a magpie to my flock of calls.

I'm not good at the whole color scheme so what exactly is a magpie and how does that differ from a Pied etc? When you look up images, you get so many different ones and there was a cat and a person .... so I'm guessing the search isn't 100% just showing magpie calls

 

[Lacrystol]

Will do on the magpie. I would love to have a pair of them too and a blue bibbed pair.

The little guy was on day 12 when he stopped. For incubating I used my homemade incubator. It keeps temp btwn 99.1 and 99.7 (kicks on at 99.1 and shuts off at 99.7). I let the eggs sit for 24 hrs after they arrived (large end up). I ran it at about 25% humidity. I have a tin pan with 2 sponges on the bottom for when I need to raise humidity at hatch time. Then a floor made of hardware cloth over top of that. I laid the eggs in a small plastic basket with slits cut down the sides that I drilled about 40 or so 1/2" holes in covering the bottom. I hand turned the eggs 3 times a day. I think that my mistakes were that I started turning and misting right away. I've since read that many people don't turn shipped eggs for a few days and don't start misting until day 10. The ones that I set tonight were not shipped but were still driven from SC to FL. The air sacs are all intact but I'm thinking that I'm still going to wait a few days before I start turning them and no misting this time until later. Any suggestions you have would be much appreciated.

I'm still house and pet sitting for my parents until tomorrow so my new call babies are out here on her back screened porch. They are so dang cute. I'm loving the penciled one!! I ended up getting him for free because he's missing an eye but he's still so adorable. He hangs out with the buff pair mostly and the butterscotch pair hang out on their own. The buff have longer necks then shows do but the butterscotch are perfect. The buff drake is a brute and is definitely the dominant one of the 5. I just love them already!!!

Thanks again for all of your help!

Well I would guess and say misting them on day 10 is inaccurate. I would also say that waiting a few days from them to set even though they are intact, is incorrect.. The ones that you have right now, I would lay them down turn them 3 times a day. By you NOT turning them, your allowing them to stick to the side of the shell and they will never make it... When you turn them, understand it does not matter what time, So if your schedule is every 8 hours erase that from you mind. As long as there is at least a 4 hours separation between each turning, you'll be OK. My schedule was 8:30 in the morning, 6:30 at night and then again at midnight. You see adults ducks do not have a watch so they don't sit there and go "hum, it's been 8 hours time to turn".

As far as misting, well I do NOT mist, I have a sponge that I use, I have it soaking in water, once I have turned all my eggs, then I touch each egg with the sponge until the water runs down the eggs. you have to kind of think like a duck. When the mommy duck sits on eggs, she will bury the eggs, she does this for two reasons. To keep the eggs safe and warm. Safe so that preditors don't eat them.

Now once she is off the eggs what is it that she does? Goes for a dip. YUP. goes swimming, once she's done swimming, shell get back on her eggs and guess what, she's still wet, this is how she sponges or mists her eggs. Your job is to try and duplicate what a mommy duck does. Hope some of this makes since..