North Woods Quack
Chirping
- Jun 7, 2023
- 30
- 168
- 64
So I think I posted this story a bit yesterday on the new members forum. I have 7 ducks. Two 2-year-old Harlequin ducks, Snow White and Golden Girl, and their one - year-old daughter, Whistle-Peep (only hatchling from their communal nest of 12 eggs in May 2022.) Last May I (of course!) acquired MORE ducks - some Pekins for the freezer and three Silver Appleyard girls, Matilda, Maude & Mini. I kept 1 Pekin drake, Doh!, as a breeder having lost my Harley drake, Sir Francis Quack, to a fox. Also kept one Pekin duck, Dear.
Anyway, this year the Harleys did not go broody at all, but the Appleyards did. Matilda started, getting all puffed up and fussed when I shooed her off the nest to collect eggs in the morning. There were several communal clutches going, and here and there an egg laid on the floor. I realized (duh) that Tildy was going broody, so I added a few really clean eggs from that morning's haul to her nest (once she left for her daily swim & groom) and marked all with a sharpie pen. May 13th, a Saturday. Marked my calendar for 28 days hence. For about a week to ten days, Matilda was all alone on that nest. I would wait for her to leave, then swoop in and collect the new, unmarked eggs that were being laid underneath her.
I know. I should have separated her and her clutch, somehow. With chickens and turkeys in the past I simply transferred the works to a clean large dog crate, deeply bedded in clean straw. Kept them cleaned, watered and fed and in 21 or 28 days, Voila! A lovely high percentage hatch. I didn't even candle the eggs back then. Just left it to mom, who always knew best.
Anyway... the other two AppleYards soon joined their sister in the broody nest. I guess I was afraid to move Matilda early on for fear she'd bum the whole lot. Whatever, I am new to the duck game.
So here we are. Within the hatch out window, from today Thursday the 8th June to Saturday the 10th.
Yesterday morning, I noted that one egg had externally pipped and got all excited. (tho I worried it was too soon.) In the evening when I went to the duck yard to close the gang in the duck house I found the same egg/duckling partially hatched out, and quite dead, by the duck yard gate. Somebody - one of the broodies, the drake, who???? - had picked this wee package up out of the nest and deposited it in the mud by the gate. And it was raining.
I was totally bummed. This morning i didn't really even want to go out there to see what fresh horrors awaited. But I went. I waited for the 3 moms to clamber off the nest and eat some fresh greens and swim. The remaining eggs looked good. And one was rocking and rolling!
At this point the fate of the wee ones is in the wings of the great duck goddess in the sky, or nature or whoever. But I sure could use some advice.
Ps I do have an incubator, which i used once with fertile chick eggs. Had some issues with temp/humidity. Some duds, some egg bounds, a few perky live ones - 5 out of 12 survived that experience.
Anyway, this year the Harleys did not go broody at all, but the Appleyards did. Matilda started, getting all puffed up and fussed when I shooed her off the nest to collect eggs in the morning. There were several communal clutches going, and here and there an egg laid on the floor. I realized (duh) that Tildy was going broody, so I added a few really clean eggs from that morning's haul to her nest (once she left for her daily swim & groom) and marked all with a sharpie pen. May 13th, a Saturday. Marked my calendar for 28 days hence. For about a week to ten days, Matilda was all alone on that nest. I would wait for her to leave, then swoop in and collect the new, unmarked eggs that were being laid underneath her.
I know. I should have separated her and her clutch, somehow. With chickens and turkeys in the past I simply transferred the works to a clean large dog crate, deeply bedded in clean straw. Kept them cleaned, watered and fed and in 21 or 28 days, Voila! A lovely high percentage hatch. I didn't even candle the eggs back then. Just left it to mom, who always knew best.
Anyway... the other two AppleYards soon joined their sister in the broody nest. I guess I was afraid to move Matilda early on for fear she'd bum the whole lot. Whatever, I am new to the duck game.
So here we are. Within the hatch out window, from today Thursday the 8th June to Saturday the 10th.
Yesterday morning, I noted that one egg had externally pipped and got all excited. (tho I worried it was too soon.) In the evening when I went to the duck yard to close the gang in the duck house I found the same egg/duckling partially hatched out, and quite dead, by the duck yard gate. Somebody - one of the broodies, the drake, who???? - had picked this wee package up out of the nest and deposited it in the mud by the gate. And it was raining.
I was totally bummed. This morning i didn't really even want to go out there to see what fresh horrors awaited. But I went. I waited for the 3 moms to clamber off the nest and eat some fresh greens and swim. The remaining eggs looked good. And one was rocking and rolling!
At this point the fate of the wee ones is in the wings of the great duck goddess in the sky, or nature or whoever. But I sure could use some advice.
Ps I do have an incubator, which i used once with fertile chick eggs. Had some issues with temp/humidity. Some duds, some egg bounds, a few perky live ones - 5 out of 12 survived that experience.
