Hatching eggs

[mckenzie]

Last year was my first year having wild waterfowl. When my wood duck hens would lay I would take an egg every day and leave one in the nest. I thought I would get more eggs this way, but i guess i was wrong I only got 21 eggs out of 3 hens. Now i know that you let them lay until they pull feathers to cover the eggs. Then they could possibly lay again. Would it be better to let the hen set and hatch the eggs or pull them out and put them under a broody hen? Now I have egyptian geese and barheaded geese do i need to pull their eggs or just let them hatch them. Also I could possibly get a pair of blue-winged teals and north american pintails. So what about these also.

 

[Dr. Todd]

Your best best with the wood ducks is to let her complete the clutch and begin to incubate before pulling the eggs. You'll need to decide whether you want to pull them early in incubation or later. The trade off is that pulling eggs early in incubation increases the chances of the hen re-nesting, but hatchability in an incubator is not as good as when the eggs are incubated longer under the mother and pulled just prior to hatch. Don't let the mother hatch the ducklings and try to take them away, the ducklings tend to be spastic and have very high mortality. I wouldn't suggest letting the female raise the ducklings either as most wood ducks in captivity aren't very exemplary parents.

You can treat Pintail, all the teal, etc. the same way but in some cases these species make better parents and it is possible to parent rear the ducklings if the enclosure setup accommodates it (no other ducks in the enclosure, easy in/out pools, etc.)

For the geese, let them sit and raise their own goslings. Geese in general are excellent parents and will do a fantastic job brooding and rearing the young. Bar-headed and Egyptian geese are both good parents.

Good luck,
DT

 

[mckenzie]

How long would you let the hen set on the first clutch before pulling the eggs?

 

[Dr. Todd]

Again, that depends on what you want: a second clutch or better hatch rates on the first clutch?

If you want a second clutch, pull the first clutch within the first week of incubation. If you want the best hatch rate, pull the clutch once the eggs have pipped.

DT

 

[waterdog]

With the geese we let the parents raise the gooslings as they will inprint, with all of our ducks we let them incubate for at least two weeks and then pull them and finish them in the incubator with good success at hatching and double clutching.

 

[Dr. Todd]

Waterdog:
What type of incubator are you using for your waterfowl eggs? Any tips or tricks you could share with the group?
DT

 

[waterdog]

We have two sportsman 1202's for incubating and one 1202 for hatching the two incubating are kept at 99.4 and 50-55% humidity and the hatcher at 99 and about 70% humidity

 

[mckenzie]

I have been reading about everyone else's wood ducks and other ducks already laying this year. I figured I wouldn't get any eggs till later on. But I decided to go check my boxes and I had 2 eggs in one box already it surprised me. I guess because last year they didnt lay untill april beacuse i got them in early march.

 

[THunter]

Better question. Where'd you get the deer? That is cool.

 

[mckenzie]

About three years ago she was caught in the fence when she was a baby. I found her helped her out and left her to see if the mother would return but she never did. So I just raised her I kept her in the house for 2 months then turned her out. I would call for her when it was time for her to have a bottle. At about a year old she had a baby and thats when I started seeing her less and less. Now its been about two years since I have seen her.