hatching ducklings is depressing and stressful

[Karen09]

I have given my cayuga duck eggs to a few people who said they never had them and they eat my chicken eggs all the time. They said the duck eggs taste the same but the texture is different. One said the yolk is so much bigger. I did not taste anything diffferent with the duck eggs compared to the free range chicken eggs. Maybe it is either - oh they are different and I have heard duck eggs are stronger tasting so therefore, when they eat them, they are, or some duck eggs do taste different. One friend said that muscovy duck eggs do taste stronger than the ones I gave them from my Cayugas. Let me know what your people think of them. I am setting my incubator tomorrow with some Cayuga eggs, plus I have 2 hens that went broody that I am putting some under them tomorrow.

I am sorry for all those that have not had a good hatch. It does break your heart. I will let you know how mine goes.

 

[Emmalion]

I got my first pip today in one of my Pekin eggs. One the wrong end of course

A day early for lock down and the turner kept her from progressing. But now she is doing ok and made a larger hole but no progress in the last 6 hours. I figure she is early as in really early so she is going to take her time.

Maybe shes knitting, who knows

My cracked egg has be dewaxed and looked to have an internal pip. So I hope all goes well with mine. This is going to be a very long 2 days at work away from them.

 

[Karen09]

I hope she/he makes it!

It has to be so exciting!

Keep us up to date as much as you can! Sorry you have to go to work - that has to be hard to concentrate on your work.

 

[donnavee]

Our 1st hatch was this month and we had 8 call ducks hatch out of 18 eggs. I know that's not great, but we considered it a success for newbies. I did mist the eggs and kept the humidity up. During lock down, I added more water when I removed the turner and the darned little things were hatching out the next morning. After 2 days, we removed all the ducklings since we were sure no more would hatch - only to hear loud peeping coming from an egg. We closed the bator up quickly and crossed our fingers. By the next morning, the little thing had not hatched but would peep when spoken to. DH finally decided to start opening the egg and we found the baby was stuck. Must have happened as a result of the humidity dropping. I was horrified, but DH soaked it in warm water and finally got it out. It was horrible looking, and couldn't get out of it's fetal position. I put it back in the bator to get warm and dry. After a few hrs, I removed it, gave it some vitamin water and the green gro gel stuff. It stayed in a plastic shoe box inside the brooder the rest of the day with me giving feed and water. The next morning, it was trying to jump out of the box to join it's siblings so I nestled it in with the other ducks which calmed it down. I kept feeding and watering by hand since it wasn't strong enough to eat and drink on it's own. On day 3, I went to take care of it and found it at the feeder with the other ducks. I named he/she Tiger for it's brave spirit. It is a little smaller than the other hatchlings, but is perfect in every way.

So, the moral of the story is don't give up - you will eventually get some beautiful little babies.