noisy duck eggs?

[davekrista]

How soon before I will be able to hear noises from my eggs? I swear I'm either going crazy or they are VERY noisy!!!! None of my kids are home, my mom pick up my son to spend time with him and my daughters are in school, and hubby is working. I'm sitting here having my lunch, enjoying the quiet. My incubator is in our shoe closet (so its easily accessible and out of site from the kids) and the closet is right next to our kitchen. I can hear the fan of the incubator, and everyonce in a while I hear "something." I can't quite make it out, but everytime I get up to look in the incubator it stops.... There isn't anything else in or near the closet so I was thinking maybe its the ducklings in the eggs? When will i be able to hear them? I'm on day 14 so i'm assuming its way to early to be able to but i can't think of anything else that would be making that noise in there.....

 

[katharinad]

Not the ducks. They start chirping when they are in lockdown close to hatching. Or after they have piped internally. Perhaps some mice? I would set some traps to make sure. BTW mice will eat into the styrofoam incubator and eat the eggs. Make sure that this is not going on.

 

[davekrista]

Quote:
I hope not!!! I totally hate mice!!!! I haven't ever seen any evidence of them here in this house, but when I lived in FL we had them and the landlord refused to patch up where the pipe came into the house and they kept coming in...... The closet is on and Interior wall so they would have to actually come in from somewhere else and I would think I would see them or atleast see some evidence of them....

 

[katharinad]

You usually see evidence when you have a lot of them. We have fields around our house and they come in all the time. Especially in fall. They can squeeze trough small cracks and very tiny holes. Plus our cat loves to bring them in and let them loose. We also have a crawl space underneath the house and they do come up the pipes. Have fixed that several times and they still manage. So I use snap traps with sunflower seeds glued on the tripper under sinks. Works like a charm. I also use plastic catch traps on the kitchen floor, so it is save for our pets. I know they cannot get to the food, so I'm not totally grossed out. I just get rid of the dead ones and release the life one. Bet they will be back in the next day.

 

[davekrista]

Quote:
Well I did check all around and saw nothing....I am hoping maybe it was the wind and I never noticed it before because of all the kids usually running around..... If we DO end up having a mouse or worse, mice, we're getting another cat.... I know there is some in the wooded area behind my house because our old cat used to kill them when she was outside but she passed away a few months ago, so I will definately get another if that turns out to be the case.....