Help!! Preschool Teacher in over her head!!

[DuckandGoose]

Hello everyone! So yes I am the preschool teacher that is in over her head!!
Let me start out by saying I have two beautiful girls one is 12 and the other 8, and we bought them baby ducks two years ago from Tractor supply. We bought six not knowing what sex any of them were or even what type of ducks they were. Since then we have figured out they are Khaki Campbell Ducks and we have three males and three females and they get along great!!
To make a long story short I had a parent who owns chickens ask if we would like to use their incubator to try and hatch some baby chicks(from them) and even some baby ducks(from my girls and I....) So of course being a teacher I said sure, it will be a great learning experience!! NOPE.... it hasn't been!! Out of all the chicks we ended up with 0 after candling them twice.... as we followed directions, and out of 6 duck eggs we ended up with three that had actually taken. After 29 days we have had two in the same day pip through and one hatched all on it's own and is doing GREAT!! The other one that had piped made it half way out of the shell and unfortunately died. I am so grateful it this has been over vacation!!!!!! Because I am an emotional mess, I don't even want to think how the little ones would have been!!
The last egg is still in the incubator and doesn't seem to be doing anything at all... My questions are these: What am I going to do if this is the only one that hatches out of the three? Can I put it in with our two year old flock which would be it's mothers and fathers or at the least related? (Not sure if this like humans and would be incest??....) of course after it was old enough to go in with them. Will my flock even accept it? If not the family with the chickens said that they would take it but I am worried that they will put it in with their chickens and I don't know if you can mix chickens and ducks first of all and second wouldn't the chickens be mean to it?? My final question is how long is too long to leave the last egg in the incubator?
Sorry for so many questions... Yes I'm in over my head.,,,, Yes I should have did my homework before even starting a project like this, so please don't judge because trust me it won't happen again, I have learned my lesson.... it's too devastating and I'm not cut out for it!! Kudos to all of you that are and can!!
Thank you for any and all feedback!! <3

 

[sourland]

sorry for the situation that you are dealing with.

It sounds as if the chicken eggs were not fertile to begin with.

I would wait on the other egg for another 24 hours. If possible buy another duckling for company or provide the duckling a mirror to serve as 'company'.

I would not try to integrate it into your flock until it is mature and only if it is a female. You have more than enough drakes as it is. The adults might be rough on it so the integration would have to be monitored.

Chickens not raised with ducks generally do not like ducks and again will make life difficult for a duck being integrated into their flock.

Best case scenario would be to find someone who has a bunch of ducks of varying ages who could provide a home for this duckling.

Good luck, and relax. Things will work out.

 

[LRH97]

sorry for the situation that you are dealing with.

It sounds as if the chicken eggs were not fertile to begin with.

I would wait on the other egg for another 24 hours. If possible buy another duckling for company or provide the duckling a mirror to serve as 'company'.

I would not try to integrate it into your flock until it is mature and only if it is a female. You have more than enough drakes as it is. The adults might be rough on it so the integration would have to be monitored.

Chickens not raised with ducks generally do not like ducks and again will make life difficult for a duck being integrated into their flock.

Best case scenario would be to find someone who has a bunch of ducks of varying ages who could provide a home for this duckling.

Good luck, and relax. Things will work out.

x2 on everything. I especially agree with the chicken eggs sounding as if they weren't fertile at all. As long as I've had roos in with the girls and I've set eggs (either under a hen or a bator) I've never gotten a 0% hatch rate from my personal flock ( not all have been good though). Shipped eggs are a different story. I will say this. I had four ducks that ran around themselves together. A fox killed all but one. She went in with the chickens and has been a part of that flock since. That's probably a best case scenario story, but I just felt I should throw that out there. As sourland said, a home with more ducks would be ideal. Artificial incubation can be a touchy process. We've all had our fair share of bad hatches and it can be discouraging when things go south, but don't let it sour you on it. It makes you feel really proud when those little peeps start coming from the eggs and soon you have pips and then little fluff butts running around the incubator. Chin up, there's always next time.

 

[DuckandGoose]

Sourland and LRH97..... Thank you so much for your replies!! You have been very helpful with your answers. I agree with you both in the fact that the Chicken eggs were not fertilized when we got them. The family did say that they had an old rooster so maybe that was why.... I have a few more questions. How old does the duck have to be to integrate it with our flock? Also I wasn't clear on the answers about mixing offspring with their parents? And on a final note I saw on somewhere when I was trying to find answers that someone said to mix the feed and water for the new baby. Is this something I should be doing? It ate right off on it's own and I have both water and food in little dishes for it. I am a little unsure as when we got our ducks two years ago they were already 4weeks old. I am so grateful I found this site that is so helpful!!

 

[fourkidsandduck]

Inbreeding of ducks is not "optimal" however it's also not anything to be concerned about.

Flock integration depends on how they are received by the flock. There is really no rule of thumb that I know about.

Wetting of the food, some people do it to prevent choking. It seems yours are doing fine. It's just personal preference.