MAY Hatch-Along!!!! Let's do this!!!

[wordgirl]

I've got seven seperate hatches planned for this month.

Cayuga, 2 Khaki Campbell and a Swedish in the hatcher on lockdown.

Got mixed ducks scheduled for Mother's Day and my birthday.

Got Swedish, Runners and Appleyards that just went in the bator yesterday.

Hi Goin Quackrrs! That's a lot of ducklings!

You'll have to post pictures of your hatches as they come! You have a nice variety of breeds - can't wait to see the little fluffballs! Especially the Runners - I think Runner ducklings are adorable! I hope your hatch goes well!

 

[wordgirl]

Dang, I just unplugged everything after the last ducklings left and the freshest eggs too. A guy came to buy some Serama and I sent him home with a pile of eggs too that I had stashed since I was out of ducklings.

It's tempting to do another batch, the Saxony certainly sell well. I'm giving the girls a shot at it, letting them keep their eggs now. Duchess is working on it, I keep finding her on the nest in the middle of the afternoon, though she doesn't seem to be taking it seriously.

But maybe she'll join the hatch-a-long. She's started burying them, that's new. And she's gotten more aggressive. Maybe she'll turn 100% broody instead of only half way.

Hi mandelyn! Ooh, Saxony - those are pretty! I hope Duchess will join in - come on, sweetie! You can do it!

Let's see, so far, we have:
10 Anconas
More Anconas
8 Australian Spotted
3 Snow Call ducks
2 Welsh Harlequin
7 Call Ducks
Cayuga
2 Khaki Campbell
1 Swedish
Mixed breeds
More Swedish
Runners
Appleyards
Saxony (hopefully

)
Runner X Swedish
9 Pekin/Cayuga
More calls
(Guineas

)
10-11 Muscovy

That's a pretty good mix of breeds - it'd be fun to see what our collective hatch numbers are!

Anyone else hatching duckies this month?

 

[fowllover]

ok update. I was wrong on my duck eggs! My hubby has some polish chicken eggs as well that came in. So my duck counts are:

8 Aussie call ducks
3 Snow call ducks
2 Welsh Harlequins

The Welsh are from our own ducks. One of the eggs I am pretty certain won't hatch (it had been in a bit of water on the edge of the pond bank) but I stuck it in there anyway and will candle it later.

I am really nervouos about the duck eggs and if I can even get so much as a 30% hatch rate I will be happy. So many horror stories out there on call duck hatching that I am unsure of what to expect.

How are you guys handling your eggs? Are you hand turning or auto turning? What are your temps and humidity levels? Are you misting?

 

[featherfinder]

I have some Runner X Swedish eggs that are due to hatch next weekend. My 2 girls each started laying on nests at the same time lol.

 

[wordgirl]

ok update. I was wrong on my duck eggs! My hubby has some polish chicken eggs as well that came in. So my duck counts are:

8 Aussie call ducks
3 Snow call ducks
2 Welsh Harlequins

The Welsh are from our own ducks. One of the eggs I am pretty certain won't hatch (it had been in a bit of water on the edge of the pond bank) but I stuck it in there anyway and will candle it later.

I am really nervouos about the duck eggs and if I can even get so much as a 30% hatch rate I will be happy. So many horror stories out there on call duck hatching that I am unsure of what to expect.

How are you guys handling your eggs? Are you hand turning or auto turning? What are your temps and humidity levels? Are you misting?

I am auto-turning, even though I've heard a few people recommend hand-turning for duck eggs. I kind of would have liked to hand-turn, but I don't have the time and since they were shipped eggs I thought it'd be okay to have them in the turner anyway so that the air cells were up.

I'm aiming for 101.5* in my still-air Hovabator this first week, and am trying to go up a half a degree each week, until the last couple days, when I'll drop temp by 1-1.5 degrees. However, my temperature has been very all over the place, which I'm not very happy about. It might just be differences in measuring (diff. thermometers, different positions in the incubator), but it's been a little frustrating. I've adjusted it probably more than I should have to correct it, but I'm still not exactly at the temperature I would love. But hopefully it's close enough. My Storey's Guide to Ducks says that a constant temperature of 102-102.5* in a still-air is okay for duck eggs for the majority of the incubation (if you have a staggered hatch, for instance), so hopefully everything will be okay, although I'm pretty sure my temperature has been outside of that range some of the time.

However, I did candle some of them this evening, and on several of them I saw a dark part on the yolk, so I'm hoping that's the embryo. I couldn't distinctly make out veining too much yet, though. It's only day 3, so it's still early, but yay!

I'm also trying for a humidity level of 55%, but that hasn't been too consistent. I've heard it's good to keep track of the size of the air cells/weight of the eggs to measure moisture loss, too. I would have liked to weigh them, but I didn't have a scale handy.

I am planning on misting - I guess I'm starting that tomorrow.

I might need to find me a misting/spray bottle, though. A tip I got from someone who's incubated before - you should mist with water that's WARMER than the temperature of your eggs, because cool water will get sucked into the egg, bringing any bacteria on the shell with it.

 

[wordgirl]

I have some Runner X Swedish eggs that are due to hatch next weekend. My 2 girls each started laying on nests at the same time lol.

Hi featherfinder! Thanks for joining the hatching party! Have you ever had ducks hatch out babies before? They will be so cute - a mother duck with her ducklings!

Be sure to post photos of the happy families when they hatch!

 

[Goin Quackrrs]

ok update. I was wrong on my duck eggs! My hubby has some polish chicken eggs as well that came in. So my duck counts are:

8 Aussie call ducks
3 Snow call ducks
2 Welsh Harlequins

The Welsh are from our own ducks. One of the eggs I am pretty certain won't hatch (it had been in a bit of water on the edge of the pond bank) but I stuck it in there anyway and will candle it later.

I am really nervouos about the duck eggs and if I can even get so much as a 30% hatch rate I will be happy. So many horror stories out there on call duck hatching that I am unsure of what to expect.

How are you guys handling your eggs? Are you hand turning or auto turning? What are your temps and humidity levels? Are you misting?

I have most of my eggs in turners. However, I have the batch due the 31st in my backup hatcher, so hand-turning those.

I mist if I open the bator for anything.

Might sound silly, but I rarely check the temp on my bators. I have 2 Hovabator Genesis and my hatchers are made with the incukit from Incubator Warehouse. All preset. All circulated air.

Hatch dates: 5/13, 5/20, 5/24, 5/31. Gonna need a bigger brooder.

 

[Ilovemyduckies]

I set my 5/5. 9 pekin/cayuga eggs from my ducks. This is my 4th batch this year. The first three were shipped and and I got nothing out of them. I am hoping I will have better luck with these ones.

 

[country_girl011]

ok update. I was wrong on my duck eggs! My hubby has some polish chicken eggs as well that came in. So my duck counts are:

8 Aussie call ducks
3 Snow call ducks
2 Welsh Harlequins

The Welsh are from our own ducks. One of the eggs I am pretty certain won't hatch (it had been in a bit of water on the edge of the pond bank) but I stuck it in there anyway and will candle it later.

I am really nervouos about the duck eggs and if I can even get so much as a 30% hatch rate I will be happy. So many horror stories out there on call duck hatching that I am unsure of what to expect.

How are you guys handling your eggs? Are you hand turning or auto turning? What are your temps and humidity levels? Are you misting?

just so you know australian spotteds and call ducks are 2 different breeds.
australian spotteds are a bantam duck but not a call

 

[country_girl011]

i have call eggs and guineas in the bator.

calls due 10th.
guineas due 17th
and other calls due the 24th.
and just set more call eggs today so they will be due the 2nd of next month.

hoping to get some silkie eggs soon 2.