First time hatching ducklings

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CJ1

CJ1

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I am new to this forum and hope I am doing this right lol My female duck has just started hatching her first of several eggs. How long do I wait for all the eggs to hatch? She has 4 hatched so far but not sure they all will hatch. How do I know when to get rid of eggs that may not hatch?
 
CJ1 said:
I am new to this forum and hope I am doing this right lol My female duck has just started hatching her first of several eggs. How long do I wait for all the eggs to hatch? She has 4 hatched so far but not sure they all will hatch. How do I know when to get rid of eggs that may not hatch?
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It may take her 2-4 days to hatch them all. She will likely roll any non-hatchable ones out of the nest, or she will abandon any eggs that won't likely hatch, as she starts teaching the new ones. Just leave her be until she gets off the nest. Check any leftover eggs and if any are alive, either leave them for her to finish, or you could try incubating them yourself, if you have an incubator.

:welcome
 
The duck will lose interest in the nest/eggs, but while some are still viable, she'll roll the non-viable ones away with her bill as she notices them. I had a huge nest last year, and after the group hatched, I examined the ones that didn't hatch. A couple had some blood (probably died early during incubation, and there was a dead chick with full yolk sack that I gather had some hatching difficulty, didn't even pip. Mom knows best, I'd leave all alone until after she's abandoned any remaining eggs.
 
Thank you! I will keep an eye on them. My drake is with her and the babies . So far he has been really good with them. Should I be concerned at all with him being with them ? During day he outside guarding the coupe mist of the day. Then I put him in with them at night
 
welcome from Getaclue.gif
You have gotten some great advice!

Congratulations on the new babies
 
CJ1 said:
Thank you! I will keep an eye on them. My drake is with her and the babies . So far he has been really good with them. Should I be concerned at all with him being with them ? During day he outside guarding the coupe mist of the day. Then I put him in with them at night
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Definitely monitor him. Does he have any other girls? Depending how badly he "misses" momma duck, he may want her for himself, and the ducklings could be in his way. Or he could be quite happy to have them. All depends on the drake. I've had it go both ways.
 
He only has the one female. She is very vocal and he seems to listen to her. When he goes inside he snuggles to her and helps to warm the nest. With that said it still makes me nervous. I will keep an eye on him. Thank you so much for the advise. I have been looking on this site a lot and is very informative. I appreciate the advise and quick responses! I will keep you all posted!
 
CJ1 said:
He only has the one female. She is very vocal and he seems to listen to her. When he goes inside he snuggles to her and helps to warm the nest. With that said it still makes me nervous. I will keep an eye on him. Thank you so much for the advise. I have been looking on this site a lot and is very informative. I appreciate the advise and quick responses! I will keep you all posted!
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Sounds good! Glad you joined us.
My drake was also very good throughout the whole deal. But once momma was moving around, he wanted back at her. I watched him grab a duckling in his mouth, by its head and sling it! Luckily the baby was fine, but it got him sent to isolation for a few days. :D At least until the babies get big enough to run to momma!

But like I said, it's possible for him to be fine with them too. :fl
 

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