Duck hatch-a-long october/november!!!!!! come join!

[klj491]

A dozen sounds great to me! Thanks again!!

 

[klj491]

So I have 8 Khaki eggs getting shipped to me tomorrow, should be here Friday or Saturday, and I'm waiting on an auction for a dozen Muscovy eggs that ends tonight. I'm the highest bidder at the moment, but we'll see around 8EST whether or not they're mine. If I get both, great, if not that's okay too. If I end up with all 20 eggs and they survive shipping and actually hatch I'll probably have some ducklings for sale in a month or so since I won't have space to keep them all.I'm super excited, and I'm sure the boys are going to thoroughly enjoy the process as well... Though they're young still so I may just wait until we get pips before letting them know what's going on. Little ones tend to be lacking in patience when it comes to things that take more than a day.

 

[peachncrm37]

So I have 8 Khaki eggs getting shipped to me tomorrow, should be here Friday or Saturday, and I'm waiting on an auction for a dozen Muscovy eggs that ends tonight. I'm the highest bidder at the moment, but we'll see around 8EST whether or not they're mine. If I get both, great, if not that's okay too. If I end up with all 20 eggs and they survive shipping and actually hatch I'll probably have some ducklings for sale in a month or so since I won't have space to keep them all.I'm super excited, and I'm sure the boys are going to thoroughly enjoy the process as well... Though they're young still so I may just wait until we get pips before letting them know what's going on. Little ones tend to be lacking in patience when it comes to things that take more than a day.

Oh good to hear! I talked to the lady I'm getting ducklings from this AM and she said she does sell eggs but won't have any available for another month.

Generally speaking 50% hatch rate is what you should expect from shipped eggs. I have had 100% and 0% and everything inbetween.

Shipping is always a gamble, hope yours do well!!!!

 

[klj491]

Yeah, I've got my fingers crossed. I'm excited, but I don't want to get my hopes up too much in case I have no luck with hatching.

 

[peachncrm37]

Well if you have any questions just ask! Ducks are really easy to hatch. My first batch I bought 6 eggs from an auction. I didn't check them before I got home, someone had slammed them down and 4 were smashed. One of the 4 wasn't leaking so I patched it up with white out (all I had plus I was mad and not expecting it to work). So I put 3 in the bator and all 3 hatched including the patched one!

Since then I've hatched out several different breeds of ducks. All are easy except the call ducks, and go figure Ive taken a fancy to call ducks. They are hell to hatch, great with a broody hen, but hard to keep alive in a bator.

 

[klj491]

I'm in the process of getting my incubator set where I want it now. I made sure to calibrate my thermometer first, it was right on the money. I'm literally sitting here watching it for now. 99.5 and 55% humidity is what's recommended for ducks, right?

 

[peachncrm37]

I'm in the process of getting my incubator set where I want it now. I made sure to calibrate my thermometer first, it was right on the money. I'm literally sitting here watching it for now. 99.5 and 55% humidity is what's recommended for ducks, right?

I run 30-40% humidity the first 25 days then I up it to 60-70% the last 3 days. But I have plastic incubators. I think that you are right on humidity for the styrofoam incubators.

I've also run high humidity (45-55%) all the way through a hatch and had good results.

 

[klj491]

So... I may be hatching ducks but chicken math is starting to set in already... I've got 8 khaki Campbell eggs coming in the mail friday. I just made an appointment with a lady about 45 minutes from here to pick up 2 dozen eggs tomorrow... Now granted, 9 of those will be eating (she had already washed them, so I guess they're not suitable for hatching now?) but that's still 15 more eggs going in the incubator. And I may be picking up another dozen khaki Campbell eggs on Friday from a local seller but I'm not 100% sure yet. It's a 2.5 hour drive each way, so if she's not willing to meet me halfway I may just say screw it for now.

 

[klj491]

Btw, my boys (3.5 and 2) are going to be super excited to see the ducks tomorrow. The three year old has been watching hatching videos with me and now understands how the whole "baby bird comes out of the egg" thing works. So I'm sure he's going to love telling all his friends at school about our new pets next month.

 

[peachncrm37]

So... I may be hatching ducks but chicken math is starting to set in already... I've got 8 khaki Campbell eggs coming in the mail friday. I just made an appointment with a lady about 45 minutes from here to pick up 2 dozen eggs tomorrow... Now granted, 9 of those will be eating (she had already washed them, so I guess they're not suitable for hatching now?) but that's still 15 more eggs going in the incubator. And I may be picking up another dozen khaki Campbell eggs on Friday from a local seller but I'm not 100% sure yet. It's a 2.5 hour drive each way, so if she's not willing to meet me halfway I may just say screw it for now.

You could still incubate washed eggs. Some people report high hatch rates from washed eggs, some don't. However, I do not recommend putting chickens and ducks in the incubator at the same time. Chickens only take 21 days to hatch whereas ducks take 28-32. The spike in humidity with the chickens during their hatch can kill off your duck embryos.