My Runner Duck Eggs are hatching! NOW WHAT*

[sheila3935]

If ducks are like chickens she will quit setting when it starts to interfere with her taking care of the ducklings. If that happens I say give the silkie some of the rest of the eggs. I'm sure your silkie would love to be a surrogate ducky momma

 

[TLWR]

cute cute cute cute cute!

My baby cardinals left the nest this morning, need to convince DH more baby ducks are necessary lol

 

[jdywntr]

1 more just hatched. Another blue I think.

So thats 6 so far.

I think I may have a hard time giving these up but no room.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
They are precious!

 

[jdywntr]

Well this morning, 2 more and 1 more on the way. Still some eggs in the nest but I'm thinking they may be bad.

But if I get 9 I think thats pretty good for a first hatch.

So, I think 2-black, 2- fawn, 3- blue, 1- blue and white

 

[gofasterstripe]

Very cute indeed, Congratulations. Your F&Ws..have a look at their uzz towards their skin, you will see they have a hue of blue in there like mine, I can see it in their tail on the photos, you will find they will be a pale, pale blue to a silver colour, you can also tell by their beak colour they arent F&W. You will like them once they feather out.

 

[gofasterstripe]

Ive found my blue drake is pretty dominant with the blue coloring he throws, I will be glad once my whites, emery, silver and trouts grow up to throw a bit more colour in their offspring. Roll on next year

 

[jdywntr]

Well, 1 more black hatched yesterday.

And this morning 1 more is coming. I helped yesterdays out a bit because it had been 24 hours since the hole appeared and it was making no progress and with the heat I was afraid it would cook in the shell. I was glad to see it turned out okay because there was a bit of blood when I removed some of the shell.

I took 1 unhatched egg away this morning as it was much smaller than the others but there are still 5 (I think) left. I just don't want to take them away if there are babies in there. I tried candling the little one I took away but we have no rooms without windows and even stepping in to a closet I could see nothing at all.

Ideas on how long to leave them?


The babies have already found the food and water in their area. Should I just leave starter in there and let mom eat that or provide some pellets for her? I don't feed layer pellets so I am not worried about calcium level if the babies get it (which they have).


Gofasterstripe, very interesting. I was excited when the first to hatch looked blue and white. With this group I have no idea who is from who as all of my females were laying in the same nest. Don't really care though. I am very curious what they will look like though my DH is not thrilled about my wanting to keep some.

 

[FarmrGirl]

Quote:
Once she gets a certain amount of hatches (only she'll know that amount), she'll abandon the other eggs to raise up her babies off the nest. If you have an incubator, get it running now so that when she decides she's done hatching you can candle the remaining eggs and set the good ones in the 'bator. You'll probably be able to add new hatches to her current brood for about a week or maybe 2. Once the others are doubled in size you may not be able to slide any new ones in on her. But it seems a shame to let fertile, half incubated eggs go to waste!

Put crumble out for the babies to eat... mama can eat that too.

 

[jdywntr]

Well, yesterday another blue hatched.

So thats 10! Since they started hatching on Saturday, I figured I'd keep an eye on her today and see if see if she was staying on the nest with the remaining 5 eggs. She was not. Decided to go out and about in the run with the babies. So, I read on BYC (somewhere) that you could check to see if unhatched are viable by putting them in warm water. So I decided to do this. Brought in the 5 eggs and warmed up some water. It was very obvious that 2 were moving about so, back outside they went. Came inside and another was thrashing about wildly. 1 was floating and 1 just sitting like a rock on the bottom of the bowl. Since I don't have an incubator and mom was not interested in anything except me being too close to her babies. The last 3 eggs went under my broody silkie. She was a bit miffed that I had disturbed her sitting on her invisible eggs but settled down in less than 5 minutes. I'm thinking maybe 1 a day for the next 3 days will hatch. That would be 13!!!

And they say runners are not good moms. I already emailed Metzer Farms with a pic to let them know how my ducks are doing.

Thanks for the reply FarmrGirl. I did just put the starter in with them. Mom can access pellets in the run during the day too. I forgot how messy ducklings were.

So, without further ado. Here is mom and her 10 (for now) babies.

And a closer one of the babies. I tried to get one of the first to hatch and the last. The size difference is amazing at 3 days difference. Poor little guy is tiny compared to some of the others but was keeping up within hours of hatching.