We are getting 3 welsh harlequin female ducklings. (They are coming the 24th! YAY.) I heard welsh harlequin ducks are great at hatching their own eggs. We are getting a male golden 300 duck and some females. I have asked before and people said the welsh would sit on the golden's eggs and hatch them. Is it better to have a natural birth or an incubator birth? Also how hard would it be to have a natural hatch? How hard is it to hatch ducklings? Thanks, Crazy4Fowl
I would always go for a natural hatch. I have never hatched welsh harlequin ducks but I think it all depends on the incubator. If you buy a cheap stryafoam incubator it will be very hard. If you buy and all auto or at least advanced electronic it shouldn't be hard.
There are pros and cons for both. When you do a natural hatch, there's always a chance that the hen will stop being broody or will be scared off her nest. Or worse, a rival duck will peck the eggs open. But there's no denying that mother nature can't be imitated 100% with an artificial incubator, but if you want to control the hatch and have the babies imprint on you then it's your best bet. Either way it's a good idea to have a bator handy just in case something DOES happen to mom. Since you're hatching WH ducks I don't think you'll have too many issues; they're large, sturdy ducks. Try raising call ducks...it's nerve-wracking, to put it mildly!
You could try when the ducks go broody have a separate area for them to incubate in. And then that area can then be used as a quarantine or incubated baby brooder
It depends on the breed, calls and east indies are alot harder than some other ducks to hatch, like for instance my mallards always hatch very easily and really quickly like 2 hours max. my rouens take a bit longer but i havent had any problems with all of them hatching. My muscovys can be difficult to hatch ,alot of times half the batch will die in the egg becuase they were really weak and even after doing everything we can do some still don't make it, but still alot do make it out successfully and have lived happy lives.