Exotic Ducks Incubation???

[1lpoock]

Okay so here is my situation, I have a wood duck hen sitting on about 9 eggs and she has been on them for almost 3 weeks. I also have a mandarin hen laying. She laid 6 eggs and never sat on them so I put them in the bator, they are now on day 7 and all of them look to be infertile. She has also laid two more eggs in the same nest in the meantime. Also, my ringed teal is making a nest and has four eggs in it right now....heres my questions...

1. Should I continue to take the mandarins eggs and put them in the incubator to check fertility?

2. Once they become fertile, if they ever do, should I keep taking them or let her lay and set a clutch?

3. Should I let the wood duck hatch the eggs out and then take the ducklings from her, or put her clutch in the incubator for the last week?

4. Should I take the ringed teals eggs until I have maybe 8 or 9 and incubate them, any more that she lays after that let her sit on herself?

Thanks!!

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
~gd

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

all depends, yes if you are good at hatching waterfowl, pull them all daily, you'll end up with more eggs that way.
if not, let her hatch them then take them a brood them, they arent very hard to get started, put anything in the box that eats for a day or two and they got it.

same thing with the wood duck

if you pull ringteal eggs, she should lay a lot for you over the season, if you let her set, she's done. I could always get 25-30 per hen a year when pulling them, let one hatch her own once, got 8 that was it.

Just all boils down to how confident you are with your ability to hatch migratory waterfowl eggs, if you havent done it much, letting the hens do it would be a more profitable move in the long run, if you're good, incubate and get more production

 

[1lpoock]

Do you think it will be a problem if the ringed teal and mandarin eggs are in the incubator while the wood ducks are hatching. Also, the mandarins being in when the ringed teal hatch, since they only take 24 days....

 

[1lpoock]

Oh and will this work... A hovabator genesis set at 99.5-101 degrees at 50-60% humidity (misting when needed) and 70% for hatching. Also I will hand turn 3 times a day... I hope the works out!

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

That's exactly what I do, mixed hatches are never a problem, the extra humidity doent hurt them a bit, I have to do it with everything I have here, have eggs coming off every week and 6 incubators stuffed now, so none are free to just be a hatcher.
Never had a problem with it in all my years of doing it though, you'll be fine

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Ive had good luck hatching my Mandarin eggs. I wont let them sit cause I just know something would get the babies. I mist and cool them from day 7 until day 26 when I move them to the hatchery. They normally hatch on day 29-30. I make sure that after I put the mandie eggs in, about 3 days later I stick in a bunch of call duck eggs. That way they can grow up with the call ducklings and they will teach the mandies how to eat and drink. I did that last year and the mandies did just fine. I had bough some mealworms a couple days before they hatched but the dang'd things all died on me.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
Got to keep the meal worms refrigerated, or they die or turn into the beetles that they really are