My first duck hatch!

[MotherOfPeepPeeps]

We have more hatches!

The second came out 8 hours after the first, then the third in 5 hours.
Here's the first 3.
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Then 3 more in the space of 2 hours. I didn't even see them unzipping!
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[CrystaBub]

They are so adorable - congratulations!!!!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

So precious!! Congrats!

 

[Kkrista123]

Got them under heat to dry up? Keep us updated!! They’re cute!

 

[ourcozycoop]

My first incubation ever! From 24 eggs set on 10th November, at least 22 is alive with many internal pips, one is unzipping and one has just hatched! This little guy hatched at 26 days 9 hours into incubation, a bit early but seems healthy, energetic, with no malformation. If it's a she I'll be keeping her, otherwise I'll give him away, will vent sex after 24 hours. (I intend to keep the first three healthy females that hatch)


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Oh my goodness!! How adorable!

 

[casportpony]

Congrats, they're adorable!

 

[PaulX]

So 6 hatched on day 27, 6 on day 28, totaling 12 now. I'm expecting 6-8 more on day 29 and that's probably it. This would give me a hatch rate of over 75%

Aaaaand, I tried to vent sex, but can't seem to see anything, so I give up. Instead of keeping 3 females right away I'll now keep the 6 most imprinted out of the first 8 that hatched. I'll give 3 of these away around 5 weeks when the genders become clear. By my calculation I have 89% chance of getting at least 2 females this way.

Soooo now I have 6 ducklings who scramble and pile on top of each other to get the closest to me as possible, the complete opposite of my previous ducks.

Got them under heat to dry up? Keep us updated!! They’re cute!

To my knowledge the heat lamps serve 2 purposes, for heat and for light.

I decided I don't need the light since the natural wild ducks probably don't have them anyway.

The heat is also not needed since the temperature here only go as low as 25 C 77 F during the night, and during the day is 35 C 95 F. The season here is winter, but we're only 14° from the equator, so...

 

[PaulX]

So, out of the 12 remaining eggs, 1 hatched on its own, then I decided to help out 6 weak shrink-wrapped ducklings that already external pipped and partly zipped but couldn't progress. Among these 1 have a deformed beak, and 1 has unclosed navel. 4 eggs appear to have quit, 1 among those was dead after internal pip. There is still 1 egg left in the incubator which only internally pipped and I tried to help out along with the other 6, but upon seeing blood I stopped.

Now I placed the 6 that I just helped out in quarantine, separate from the 6 that I'm keeping and the 7 other healthy ones. I don't place much hope on them. If they make it, good on them, if not then... can't be helped.

So out of 24 I hatched out 13 healthy ducklings, 6 weak ones, and another 1 still waiting for the veins and yolk sac to be absorbed.