First Call Duck Egg of the Season!

[Scott]

I went down to feed the birds this morning and, to my pleasant surprise, I found a call duck egg in the duck pen. This is the first call duck egg of the year, as well as the first egg ever laid by my two pairs of white call ducks which were hatched last spring/summer by one of my cochin hens. It just so happens that I finished their nest box last week. Hopefully, I will be getting quite a few eggs from these two pairs through the next few months or so. I will then be hatching them out and selling them as juvenile call ducks at local swap meets and livestock auctions.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Congrats!

I hope mine start soon. They usually start the first week of march.

 

[Scott]

Quote:
Thanks! I hope yours start up as well soon. I read on one your posts that you use artificial incubation with your call eggs. What kind of hatch rate are you getting? And what kind of incubator do you use? Temp? Humidity? In the past, I've always used natural incubation. However, I need all my cochins laying right now and I've got a new brinsea incubator that needs to be broke in! So, I'm thinking of trying artificial incubation with the first batch of call eggs. I know that my cochin hens can do better than I, but like I said: I want to try out my new brinsea.

Oh, and what varieties do you raise?

 

[judyc]

Scott,

That is GREAT! I got about 3 off-white BEI eggs a couple of weeks ago, but they weren't fertile.

TODAY I found a dark GREEN BEI egg. I gave it to a Scovy hen to check. I hope this one's a goer!

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Quote:
Thanks! I hope yours start up as well soon. I read on one your posts that you use artificial incubation with your call eggs. What kind of hatch rate are you getting? And what kind of incubator do you use? Temp? Humidity? In the past, I've always used natural incubation. However, I need all my cochins laying right now and I've got a new brinsea incubator that needs to be broke in! So, I'm thinking of trying artificial incubation with the first batch of call eggs. I know that my cochin hens can do better than I, but like I said: I want to try out my new brinsea.

Oh, and what varieties do you raise?

I use a Brinsea Octagon 40. Ive been getting good hatch rates. Around day 4 or 7 I start cooling the eggs for 15 min per day and misting them down during that cooling period. I found that cooling the eggs has greatly increased my hatch rates. I dont really pay attention to the humidity the first 23 days, I just moniter the air sacs, and if they are too small, I will mist that egg extra. The temp is 37.4-37.6 celsius, what the manufacturer recommends. Humidity the last 3 days, day 23-26, is around 70%. Ive been getting in the 90% range. Just make sure you use an incubator that sits on a cradle to turn. I have had horrible results with the yellow hovabator egg turners.

I have gray, white, and mixed colored call ducks.

 

[tonini3059]

I have gotten 3 so far and my Mandarin hen has already layed her first clutch can't wait to start hatching!

 

[Sweetfolly]

Someone near me started getting eggs from their Calls a few weeks ago (which is CRAZY, because my Runners & Campbells didn't start laying until this past week!). I'm on a waiting list to buy two of the ducklings (pretty White Calls) from them when the hatch!

 

[Scott]

Quote:
I hope my mandarins will hold off another week or two. I'm currently working on their pen.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

My butterscotch call hen laid her first egg (both of the season and since I've owned her) yesterday, but unfortunately the shell was super-soft so it broke. Oh well! I'm sure there will be plenty more to come.

 

[tonini3059]

I hope you get it done in time! My white one hasn't laid yet hopefully she will start soon.