Hi all,
Our momma duck for the last 38 days has been sitting on a clutch of 15 eggs, and last night (day 37) I just popped in to check on her and another duck sitting another clutch of 18 eggs (14 being her own and 4 slipped in from another duck who started laying the other day - that is ok isn't it? I'm not slipping any more in as I think she has now stopped laying - no idea if she laid one this morning but as she's been inside all day she's had no male attention), and well anyways, checked on them last night 8pm, heard a pip as I walked in, paused for a second and heard another pip, looked in and there were 2 lil baby mucscovy's! Mucho excitedness!!
Checked again at midnight, I think there was 4. And by this morning we were counting 7, and I think I clocked 10 earlier this afternoon.
At that point there were of what we could see, 2 remaining eggs as momma duck tucked them in under herself. And obviously there are some obscured from of vision/muddled in with the balls of fur.
Last night I ran and changed food dish setup to a chick/duckling food and raised up another dish for momma to eat her food from, out of reach of the ducklings. Switched on the heat lamp to assist with warmth (tad chilly in there particularly at night) however this morning repositioned it nearer to the nest and noted the ducklings came out from under momma more towards the lamp. (I've read that care should be taken as if they huddle they are cold, and move away from the source then they are too hot, but they are to the front of the nest nearest the lamp - so if they were too hot they'd surely move to the back of the nest) please advise as necessary!
However our momma duck appears exhausted, unable to sit down with potentially 15 little bundles of joy under her and 30 pieces of shell. I'm wondering, should I remove the broken shells (momma has already chucked one broken shell out) to try and give her and her babies a little extra space in her approx 18"x12" nesting box? She is very protective so I will use, or attempt to use an extension grabbing arm thing to try and fish out the shells. I have seen her nibble at the shells but it just seems a bit crowded!
Btw, from what I've seen so far, all appear lively, chatty and most importantly, Healthy! There's atleast 4 yellow and 4 dark/black ones.
I also read somewhere that they should have light for 23/24hrs a day, to help develope their eyesight, however something else I'd like to know is, will it do any harm to leave the light on 24/24hrs? When to I reduce/stop this? And baring in mind developing eyes, the IR heat lamp won't harm their eyes will it?
And finally a quick side note: In the last few weeks before our second momma started laying, in the evening at lock in time, where it'd be dark, I'd go into the chicken house where the other ducks would be and carry out some err "training", touching them in the dark (stroking/petting back and neck), then gradually introducing light in short bursts so they could see me touching them and working up to touching them with the light on. I was a little unsure as to whether my idea was working, getting them used to me being very near and the feeling of human contact. I even managed to pick 4 out of 6 up.
And well, over the past 2 weeks where momma #2 is seperated at night, during the day I've made real effort to try and hand feed some treats, closest I've gotten is about 6" from her beak but then she signals to me to chuck it infront of her (I'll keep trying)
But now with momma #2 sitting, it's extremely clear that the "training" - more trust building really, has so far paid off. In that, I can get about a foot away from momma #2 in her nest before she gets all stressy, whereas momma #1 (regardless of the ducklings) would get stressy if you came anywhere within 4ft of her.
Sorry for the long message, I only intended on asking about the empty broken shells and ended up with a story.
Thanks
Dave (first hatch)
Our momma duck for the last 38 days has been sitting on a clutch of 15 eggs, and last night (day 37) I just popped in to check on her and another duck sitting another clutch of 18 eggs (14 being her own and 4 slipped in from another duck who started laying the other day - that is ok isn't it? I'm not slipping any more in as I think she has now stopped laying - no idea if she laid one this morning but as she's been inside all day she's had no male attention), and well anyways, checked on them last night 8pm, heard a pip as I walked in, paused for a second and heard another pip, looked in and there were 2 lil baby mucscovy's! Mucho excitedness!!
Checked again at midnight, I think there was 4. And by this morning we were counting 7, and I think I clocked 10 earlier this afternoon.
At that point there were of what we could see, 2 remaining eggs as momma duck tucked them in under herself. And obviously there are some obscured from of vision/muddled in with the balls of fur.
Last night I ran and changed food dish setup to a chick/duckling food and raised up another dish for momma to eat her food from, out of reach of the ducklings. Switched on the heat lamp to assist with warmth (tad chilly in there particularly at night) however this morning repositioned it nearer to the nest and noted the ducklings came out from under momma more towards the lamp. (I've read that care should be taken as if they huddle they are cold, and move away from the source then they are too hot, but they are to the front of the nest nearest the lamp - so if they were too hot they'd surely move to the back of the nest) please advise as necessary!
However our momma duck appears exhausted, unable to sit down with potentially 15 little bundles of joy under her and 30 pieces of shell. I'm wondering, should I remove the broken shells (momma has already chucked one broken shell out) to try and give her and her babies a little extra space in her approx 18"x12" nesting box? She is very protective so I will use, or attempt to use an extension grabbing arm thing to try and fish out the shells. I have seen her nibble at the shells but it just seems a bit crowded!
Btw, from what I've seen so far, all appear lively, chatty and most importantly, Healthy! There's atleast 4 yellow and 4 dark/black ones.
I also read somewhere that they should have light for 23/24hrs a day, to help develope their eyesight, however something else I'd like to know is, will it do any harm to leave the light on 24/24hrs? When to I reduce/stop this? And baring in mind developing eyes, the IR heat lamp won't harm their eyes will it?
And finally a quick side note: In the last few weeks before our second momma started laying, in the evening at lock in time, where it'd be dark, I'd go into the chicken house where the other ducks would be and carry out some err "training", touching them in the dark (stroking/petting back and neck), then gradually introducing light in short bursts so they could see me touching them and working up to touching them with the light on. I was a little unsure as to whether my idea was working, getting them used to me being very near and the feeling of human contact. I even managed to pick 4 out of 6 up.
And well, over the past 2 weeks where momma #2 is seperated at night, during the day I've made real effort to try and hand feed some treats, closest I've gotten is about 6" from her beak but then she signals to me to chuck it infront of her (I'll keep trying)
But now with momma #2 sitting, it's extremely clear that the "training" - more trust building really, has so far paid off. In that, I can get about a foot away from momma #2 in her nest before she gets all stressy, whereas momma #1 (regardless of the ducklings) would get stressy if you came anywhere within 4ft of her.
Sorry for the long message, I only intended on asking about the empty broken shells and ended up with a story.
Thanks
Dave (first hatch)
I get the impression Miss Lydia is one extremely experienced person on here. Have seen many useful and informative posts by her.
