How eggsciting! Call ducks feeling hatchy! *PICS!* MORE!

[SilverPhoenix]

Oh my gosh--they are KILLER adorable! Now that I have a call pair (butterscotch), I think I might have to try to hatch some myself.

 

[bemba]

Oh I love butterscotch!would love to see your ducklings! (when they come)

 

[duckluck]

Quote:
Go for it! Nothing ventured, nothing gained...I'd say if you can hatch these guys, you can likely hatch rocks! My husband says I'd likely have better luck and less work hatching the golf balls in the nest box...

I have heard that the butterscotches and cresteds are the hardest to hatch, but that might just be Call-duck rumor and nothing more.

Tonight the ducklings had a "conversation" on the telephone with my father. I held the phone up to the front of the brooder, they peeped and pecked through the bars at the receiver while he talked...then, they had a little swim in the utility room sink. Kept it to only five minutes, it was their first swim and they didn't know what to think! Had to splash my fingers in the water to get them to move at first!

 

[duckluck]

Okay, we're at it again! This time, 12 of the eggs went to the hatcher from the group...the 13th candled out as dead, looks like he died while trying to make his turn, I hadn't seen movement on him in a week and so I pretty much thought he was a goner, so he was eggtopsied, found to be gone and did not make it to the hatching party...anyway, we hatched out 12 of the 12!!!

We have one weak one that probably will not make it...I've been trying with him for two days now...but everyone else is happily peeping in the brooder as I post this!

This is my first potluck group; all my ducks have been separated out into their colors now and we will have probably three more hatches a week or so apart before I can start expecting all pure colors. Some pretty good duckluck for potluck, I'd say! I have one very interesting color that I am not sure of, and when it's been out for a few days, I may do a "what's this color?" post if I can't figure out what it is.

 

[afeatherfan]

You Are So Lucky .that Is So Sweet.

 

[duckluck]

Thanks! I'm pretty proud of this little group!

I feel like I earned the right to wear my NCBA jacket that my buddy bought me now!

 

[Scott]

Congrats!

What were your incubating conditions for this last batch? Humidity? Hand-Turned? Etc?

 

[duckluck]

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All hand turned for the duration, and I started misting around day 7, I think it was. Paid pretty close attention to my air cells and am doing same for the next two batches in the GQF right now...I started out at 55% humidity but adjusted as I went according to my air cells. I kept the air in the Humidaire, well, humid.

Things got a bit wild toward the end there because I suspect that this GQF has an electronic thermostat that is on its last leg...we had a hail storm and it was careening back and forth with a 3 degree variation! 98-101! I have had people tell me this might happen but this is the first storm where it actually has! I set my alarm every hour that night to get up and check on it and adjust when necessary...I feel like I sat on these eggs myself!

It might interest everyone to know that I did wash this group...some of these eggs were muddy and some of them got pretty cold. I suspect the quitter who bugged out on the hatching party could not make his turn or pinched off something important because he was in a very narrow, pinchy egg. That said, I did manage to hatch a rather pinchy one, but it had a smaller duckling inside. I am going to try the next group with only one egg in that group having been washed, all the rest have their bloom still on. I want to see what the affect on the air cells is while I am still doing potluck ducks, so I'm not doing so much eggs-perimenting when I get purebred colors going. This group might also be bound for the model 50 drum this time, because I don't want the eggs to have to have a moving day if the GQF takes a snooze.

 

[duckluck]

Quote:
Go for it!

Why else have a pair, right?

 

[CityChicker]

Good for you! They are so cute. I am glad you are having more success. I did notice that the duckling you were washing under the sink (was that the previous hatch?) had some brown gelatin like slime on him. Did you wash that egg? I have noticed that when you wash eggs that had been really dirty, you sometimes actually have more losses and a lot of the chicks will have that thick gelatin like stuff (literally like gelatin). I suspect it is from the shell/egg absorbing bacteria when they are washed because I never see that with unwashed eggs. I know the Holderread's use an anti-bacterial wash and I will probably switch to that as well. I get too many dirty eggs (those darn Runners) to not wash them a lot of times.

Congrats on your hatch!