Incubating eggs

[animalz11]

Hi,
I'm new here and have 2 beautiful scovies.

I origionally had 2 scovies from the same batch, but, one night I forgot to put them back in their pen and our puppy played with the male (Donald) too much, we had to put him down, so, I kept his sister (Daisy) for a few months, she refused to come out of her pen because she saw what the dog did to her brother.
So I went to the poultry market and bought a blue 5 month old, at first, she attacked my new girl (Daffyn), but now, you can't even pry them apart.
Recently I bought a hige spa of eBay and they looooove it! They can spend all day in there.

Ok, down to the question, Daffy laid her first egg yesterday and I was wondering when I could buy a drake (I've already picked out the name for this future duck... Donald, in memory of the first )... I was thinking December, as Daisy will be 11 months and Daffyn 12 months. Would this be their best time?
Also, December doesn't get that cold at night so I wont have to worry about the ducklings or eggs freezing.

I was planning on lettting Daffy and Daffyn hatch their own eggs, but was thinking about buying a small incubator and hatching either some of Daffy's or Daffyn's eggs or buying my own.

What do you think?

 

[Mum]

You can add a drake anytime (why wait until December?

) Egg production will slow down during the winter months anyway. Don't know about that particular breed or its mothering abilities so can't comment on the duck hatching its own brood. But, I do have a small incubator (3-egg) and its fascinating hatching your own eggs; plus you get to control when you get to hatch ducklings!

Sorry to hear about your original Donald.

 

[animalz11]

I'd like to wait until December as I will have more time to keep an eye out and make sure everything is going and goes smoothly.
It would also give the girls more time, as right now, Daff's eggs are rather small and Daffyn hasn't started laying, so hopefully by December, they are both producing their best, as I've read that when they first start laying, their eggs are the size of a large chicken egg and are infertile, well... the first one anyway, and will get bigger.

Also, I would hate for any ducklings to dye because of the cold.

Apparently, scovies are the best mothers of all ducks, and will even raise chicken eggs.

How can you control when the eggs hatch? I thought they did that on their own... temp control?

I was thinking about getting a incubator online, but was curious about the automatic turning ones, are they controlled by computer in the incubator? Or do you just spin the top and they all roll?
If anyone has any suggestions about good incubators... (mainly I'd like one in which I can see the chicketies and ducketies hatch and assist if absolutly nessesary and I can candle the eggs, and be on standbye when the little ones hatch).. so, if anyone has suggestions or previous experience, I'd love to hear it.

And.. I've been doing a bit of research into scovie genetics, I have one blue, and one white duck, so, should I look for a chocolate drake?
Thanks,

 

[animalz11]

HI all.

I am VERY excited, we just came back from the produce store, and well, I have a weakness for anything cute and fluffy, so I kinda got 3 more ducketies.
They are adorable!

1 Pekin and 2 Khaki Campbells.

I picked out the smalllet Pekin, and boy, is she a peeper! So, the name came quickly, Peeper.
The smaller of the Khaki's is grey/brown down his side with a black band through his back and top head, with little black marks on the side of his head that look like little ears.
The bigger of the Khaki's is very colourful and I think will grow up to absolutly beautiful! He is black with little grey/brown spots on him and has a little black mark on his beak.

I'd take some pictures but mum stole the camera and I don't know how to use the webcam on this thing.

Right now they have found their food and water, and of course, the water is no longer clean... time for another change.
They seem to love the chick feeder (the big bottle that is up-side down with little holes that let the water run into a dish) they try to swim in it but they are too big.
I just call the he/she for no reason, I don't actually know.

But, there is some bad news, we live on 3 acres and the wild ducks love to eat our bugs in the grass, the dog caught an old wood duck, he didn't make a mess, he just killed it, no bleeding, just.... dead. Poor thing.
I'm just glad my other ducks didn't see it, or they would have becaome terrorfied, and it's taken me this long for Daffy to not panic everytime she saw Cronner (the dog), after seeing what happened to her brother (Donald...R.I.P), I don't think she could handle another death, even if she didn't know the bird.
Cronner just loves to chase them, never sprint after them, bite or show aggression, I never acctually thought he would catch one, but, it took me this long to learn my lesson and a poor life had to be taken for it.

 

[animalz11]

Donald in in the foreground, Daffy in the back


The 4 little Bantams, Blackie, Nugget, Frosty and Nippy, they little guys are now at my Aunty and Uncles place, I decided to give them to them as their cage was too small, and when I let them out, the magpies would swoop, in fact, it almost got the little one, lucky the dog scared it away, so it dropped the chicken, little Nugget was fine, just a bit tramatised.













Daffy and Daffyn meeting for the first time after Donalds death............My previous Pekin and 2 Khaki Campbells all cuddley together...... the cheeky horse gettinh into the duck grain........... Daffyn, the blue scovie....... Daffy eyeing off the guinea-pigs..........all the Bantam chicks have finally found the perch

 

[Mum]

Fabulous pix!!!!! Thank you for posting them

 

[Miss Lydia]

X2!

 

[animalz11]

This morning I went to go feed the ducks and collect the egg (only one ussually), So I washed it, then put it in the fridge with the others, and I noticed that this one was huge, bigger then our biggest chicken egg, they are getting bigger!