Earlier in the year, we tried to incubate and hatch and ended up with a total failure. I had higher hopes for our ducks to pull off a hatch, but that is now looking unlikely.
About six weeks ago, our ducks started sitting. We have two really dedicated sitters and two that are not quite so dedicated, but are sitting every night. All have big nests. But, six weeks down the line, nothing has hatched. Today, I confiscated all the eggs to candle and look for signs of life. There were 76 eggs in the four nests. In each nest, there were about eight eggs that were nice and warm, and a bunch that were stone cold. I had all stages of development but only six that were far along and showing signs of movement. I had 43 in various stages of development, but showing no obvious movement and 17 that were either recently added or not fertilized.
My theory is this: The ducks had too many eggs to manage. They couldn't effectively sit on 20 eggs at a time, so they kept rotating them in and out, resulting in most of the eggs not getting enough heat. Does that sound reasonable?
I gave back the six that looked lively to the two most dedicated sitters and padded out their nests with a few more fresh eggs. They hopped right back on them, so I take that as a good sign.
I took the 43 that had some development but are probably dead and put them in the incubator just in case. I figure ducks are like drowning victims: they are not dead until they are warm and dead. I'll check them in a couple days and start culling any that have gone bad.
So, how am I doing here? Next time, should I limit the number of eggs in the nests or will the ducks figure that out? Did I intervene where I should have let things be?
About six weeks ago, our ducks started sitting. We have two really dedicated sitters and two that are not quite so dedicated, but are sitting every night. All have big nests. But, six weeks down the line, nothing has hatched. Today, I confiscated all the eggs to candle and look for signs of life. There were 76 eggs in the four nests. In each nest, there were about eight eggs that were nice and warm, and a bunch that were stone cold. I had all stages of development but only six that were far along and showing signs of movement. I had 43 in various stages of development, but showing no obvious movement and 17 that were either recently added or not fertilized.
My theory is this: The ducks had too many eggs to manage. They couldn't effectively sit on 20 eggs at a time, so they kept rotating them in and out, resulting in most of the eggs not getting enough heat. Does that sound reasonable?
I gave back the six that looked lively to the two most dedicated sitters and padded out their nests with a few more fresh eggs. They hopped right back on them, so I take that as a good sign.
I took the 43 that had some development but are probably dead and put them in the incubator just in case. I figure ducks are like drowning victims: they are not dead until they are warm and dead. I'll check them in a couple days and start culling any that have gone bad.
So, how am I doing here? Next time, should I limit the number of eggs in the nests or will the ducks figure that out? Did I intervene where I should have let things be?
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