Duck Hatch Started on Mar 27, 2018

[LLee34]

Today I put 18 SWH duck eggs in my 2 little Brinsea Mini Incubators. First day is just warm-up for bators and eggs since they all were chilly at 46 degrees F. Last year I had great success with these bators so I'm looking forward to good results again this year. Am using my tack room again this year for hatching but when they are all ready to transfer, I will take them over to my other barn where DH built a stellar cage for them to grow in. I just love hatching eggs!

 

[MagpieDucks]

Exciting! Following...

 

[Miss Lydia]

Me Too

 

[LLee34]

My new egg candler arrived today (LOVE IT) so naturally I rushed up to the tack room to candle all my soon-to-be-ducklets. Only had 1 that was a dud, never got fertilized. Have three that are *maybe* so it will take another few days before I can check them again. Also I only set 14 eggs because my grand-kids can count way better than I can...

 

[littlecollier]

What candler did you get? I’m in the market for one ...

 

[LLee34]

Titan high intensity egg candler. Got it on Amazon. Really bright light, so if you are candling dark shelled eggs, it will work. When I candle the eggs again in a few days, I'll get a pic and post it here.

 

[littlecollier]

Thank you! I’ll check it out. We are setting a few duck eggs at the end of this week!

 

[LLee34]

Ok, here is a pic of my hatching set-up, which I keep in the tack room of the barn. 2 Brinsea Minis, plus all the supplies/equipment needed when they finally hatch out. Note my Avatar has changed to show one of my duck eggs candled this morning. Titan candler is in the middle.

 

[LLee34]

Candled the two suspect eggs today and they look exactly like all the other eggs, so I have 12 well on their way to becoming ducklings. All the pictures I have found on the net show a full egg shell, but all my eggs have gravitated to 1/2 of the shell with veining, etc, and the other half is almost clear. But they are still growing, and last year I hatched out 8, so I'm assuming that half full is good. The pic on my avatar is of the "dark side" of the egg. My eggs are turned every day, 180 degrees, so turning is not an issue.

 

[LLee34]

Candled my eggs today, had to toss one, so now I'm down to 11 viable eggs and some are quite sensitive to the light when candled. Moving along quite well! Have 7 days to go, more or less. Time to start working on the "hatching & drying" area. Our weather is very undependable, so I will have to keep the duckies inside the tack room for at least the first week.