Egg Emergency! *update* all died :(

[CityChicker]

Okay, I'm sorry (for both your loss of babies and for offering an opinion counter to others on this thread) but, I disagree with a lot of the advice you have been given. What has all of this intervening brought you? Not a single live duckling. That should tell you something. Yes, I know..... as soon as I say that, there will be stories of all the ducklings that have been saved by assisting a hatch. IMO, usually complete nonsense. Often the intervention wouldn't have even been necessary if not for undue interference on behalf of the human to begin with.

Rewind your entire experience back to where the hen stopped caring for the eggs.... why did that happen in the first place? I suspect it was because you were constantly checking the eggs. Again, I don't want you to feel bad, but learn from this experience. Trust me on this- intervening with hatches is NOT common practice among successful breeders. It just isn't. Period. I have been doing this a long time. Not a year or two, but over 25. We very rarely intervene and we have awesome hatches. I can honestly say that when we use broodies, we NEVER intervene. Never. We also usually have 100% hatches using broodies. I am so confused why we constantly read stories here on BYC of people doing things like candling eggs (or in other ways messing with eggs) while they are under a hen. That is not the type of thing that should be encouraged. Again, look at your own experience. Not a single live duckling.

Anyway, I have done this many, many years. I am a poultry science major and have consulted professionally with hatcheries (as well as having family in the business). Do you want to know how many large scale bird dealers intervene with hatches, NOT A SINGLE ONE. (Don't get me wrong, they monitor things like weight loss by taking a very small sampling of eggs during incubation, but the eggs for the most part are left alone). In doing so, they have excellent hatches. They have to or else business would suffer. There is also not some magical bubble around Call ducks that makes them significantly more difficult to hatch, IMHO. Again, I have no doubt that others here will disagree, but I have found Calls not much more difficult to hatch than any other duck. Maybe one of the real issues is that people are more eager to rush to intervene (combined with things like weaker stock in general). I have hatched literally dozens of them though this year alone with no intervention (in addition to a couple hundred other bantam ducks). I do believe they may have a few unique issues, but I'm not sure that intervening with hatching eggs is the best way to address those issues. I have real difficulty buying the whole "their bills are too short to hatch" thing as well. Has anyone here ever actually compared the length of a Call duck bill in relation to that of other poultry? Yes, their bills are shorter than other ducks, without a doubt. That said, their bills in relation to the size of the egg are significantly longer than other poultry, like chickens for example. I have a hard time believing that they can't adequately reach the shell.

Again, these are my opinions. BYC seems to be a site where it is difficult to offer an opinion counter to the majority, but that is my experience and opinion based on years of successful hatching. I have no doubt that others here are convinced they are correct as well, but what seems to work for us is putting the eggs in the incubator (or under the broody) and forgetting about them. We do NOT intervene nor do ANY major, commercial breeders (nor most experienced private breeders in the real world off of BYC). The result is that we generally have awesome hatches and strong stock. Good luck to you in your future hatches!

 

[L0rraine]

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I'm a newbie - and I intervene (because I can't stand not knowing) but I totally agree with everything you've said -- and HOPEFULLY I will get to that point myself some day ... SOONER than later would be good.

 

[katharinad]

Thank you CityChicker for posting this. We need to be reminded not to interfere to much. I don't like to do it either and always sit tight and wait. I did have a hard hatch this year and had to help many out of the one batch. The other batches were normal. The membranes of this one batch were thicker then usually and I waited 48 from pipping and many did not progress at all. Only 2 zipped by themselves within 24 hours, and that was out of a batch of 11. They are now strong and very healthy birds. I don't think anyone in a big operation would have helped and they would have died in the shell. So sometimes it is ok to help.
As for the dead ducklings. They may have been dead or were dying when the duck abandoned the nest. She may have known that something wasn't right so she stopped. It's a preventive thing nature has, so don't blame yourself. You've stated that you had extreme heat, that could have been the culprit. The duck tried and you tried. This will not be the last time she will go broody, so there is always a next time.

 

[duckluck]

I think what ought to also be considered here is that generally speaking, Call ducks are not generally done as a "huge" operation...there are big breeders, yes, but in comparison to a large hatchery, the amount of ducks being hatched is minute. They are usually breeding a refined variety of Calls and doing it with only the family to help, so they will be needing to do it on a much smaller scale. Not to mention the individual attention that goes into getting the birds all the way from hatch to show. Also, Calls only lay from 20-70 per duck per year, if they even lay at all, which many don't. Compare this to the vast number of eggs you can get from other duck breeds and you'll start to see where the numbers themselves make this considerably more difficult without anything else even taken into consideration. Not too many breeders will leave the eggs under a broody, at least not a Call duck broody, because of the value of the eggs and the inconsistency of many Calls in setting. Many breeders will want the birds to lay for their entire season rather than just a single clutch of eggs. And it's not the shortness of the bill but rather the roundness that I was referring to.

Am I to understand that this was your first setting of Calls? If so, I don't see where this idea of "all this interfering" comes in...you had a clutch of eggs, the broody got off of them, and you tried to incubate them. They died. I don't know what you did while they were under the broody, but I have heard of many people brooding Call eggs and removing them in the third week to incubate them and having success. I also know that most people fail in their first attempts with Calls. I personally use machines because I don't want to have chickens on a farm that was originally set up for horses with some very nice stalls, but to each his own. I know what works for me and what works for other people who are mainly breeding Calls, so I don't see that you should be beating yourself up over this. You're just going to have to give it another try again until you find what works for you, and bear in mind not every technique is going to work under every situation and in every climate.

I've also heard that the hatching has been hard this year for a LOT of Call breeders, so I wouldn't despair just yet.

 

[FenDruadin]

CityChicker--I agree almost completely with everything you said. Like you, I've seen folks on this board over and over intervene too quickly and end up with problems. I lost some ducks in my first batch because I didn't know to leave them the heck alone.

I just wanted to add, though, that in this case she's dealing with call ducks, which are notoriously difficult. I missed that point when I gave my initial advice, and I feel kind of bad about that because I think I gave poor advice as a result. And actually, the only advice I'd give now that I know, if I had it to do over again, is to get in contact with someone who has lots of call duck experience.

 

[obsidianembrace]

It was my first time trying to hatch eggs, so I'm not blaming myself too much. It is sad though.

I have a few people that I'll go to for advice next time like CityChicker and duckluck who know more about call ducks.

Thanks everyone

 

[Birdcrazy]

I agree that hatching eggs in a natural process for the duck, and pretty much should be confident that she is doing the right thing. All the temperatures and egg turning they know instinctually. If things go wrong, it needs to be accepted.

Good luck for your next babies

Maybe create a thread with pics of your new ducklings to end on a nicer note

 

[duckluck]

Quote:
PM me anytime...if it bounces, send an email. My PMs fill up fast.

 

[Chloe]

What I find about call ducks is that they are very hard to hatch in an incubator or under anything else other than a duck. The duck gets the best results, so really it couldnt be anything to do with the anatomy of the duck, just the incubation conditions. I put 12 in an incubator and only got 2, but for those 2 i am very grateful.