Overdue Saxony Ducks

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coldrick123

coldrick123

Hatching
6 Years
Sep 7, 2013
3
1
7
Isle of Wight. England.
Hi all, I wonder if anyone has ever heard of this.
I am very new to all this. I have 6 bantam Wyandotte hens, 1 went broody so my next door neighbour gave me 6 Saxony duck eggs, believed to be fertile, for her. Time went by, it was clear that not all were fertile. My hen was left to her own devices on how she cared for them, apart from occasional checking by me. 28 days were up..... Close inspection headed, 4 were definate duds! 1 was a possible and 1 was making noise. Again she was left to sit and I waited for the eggs to pip. Day 32, 1 egg started to pip, day 33, zipping occurs and late in the day, it hatches, perfect!!! Now on day 35, final egg is showing signs of life, I can hear noise and feel movement. I am in total amazement that this final egg can be at least 7 days overdue and still viable. Has anyone have any knowledge of such things happening?
 
coldrick123 said:
Hi all, I wonder if anyone has ever heard of this.
I am very new to all this. I have 6 bantam Wyandotte hens, 1 went broody so my next door neighbour gave me 6 Saxony duck eggs, believed to be fertile, for her. Time went by, it was clear that not all were fertile. My hen was left to her own devices on how she cared for them, apart from occasional checking by me. 28 days were up..... Close inspection headed, 4 were definate duds! 1 was a possible and 1 was making noise. Again she was left to sit and I waited for the eggs to pip. Day 32, 1 egg started to pip, day 33, zipping occurs and late in the day, it hatches, perfect!!! Now on day 35, final egg is showing signs of life, I can hear noise and feel movement. I am in total amazement that this final egg can be at least 7 days overdue and still viable. Has anyone have any knowledge of such things happening?
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It happens to me all the time 35 days is the norm around here for duck and geese and I had a duck hatch at 21 days last week and just healthy as can be but the norm is 30 + day's but I find it best not to count the first day other then 0 day for the first 24 hours then day one occurs .....

No nothing unusual there .....






My early duckling ....





My 35 day gosling ....
 
Last edited:
Thanks for that. Eggs from the same batch were all hatched, in an incubator, at 28/29 days, this is supposed to be the norm. I have read numerous threads that suggest that the majority of people give up around day 33 and discard eggs. Most people seem to panic if any later. I was just being curious! It goes to show, don't believe everything you read.
 
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Welcome to BYC!

Definitely. Environmental factors all come into play with hatching eggs. If the temps were a bit cold during the incubation period, and the broody couldn't keep them as warm as she could have, they can hatch late. If she got off the nest too frequently, this can increase incubation time. If one egg was on the outer edge of her body, it may have had a colder incubation than the ones in the middle.

Good luck with your broody and her chicks and welcome to our flock!
 
Thanks very much. I know very little, in comparison, but what I do know, I learnt from BYC.
In 5 months, I've gone from thinking about getting chickens to building my own coop, owning 6 bantam Wyandottes (4 silver laced, 1 gold laced & 1 silver pencilled), broody hen sitting on duck eggs, being present at the hatching of 1st Saxony duckling, determining viability of other eggs, waiting longer than expected for hatchings, still 1 more to go, utilising a storage container as a brooder, building an external brooder/coop for ducklings, I have made my own gravity fed watering system, read hundreds of articles/forums/books etc, enjoyed lots of fresh free range eggs and managed to work 60hrs a week and a little sleep! Not bad eh?!?!?! Thanks BYC and all members
 
coldrick123 said:
Thanks for that. Eggs from the same batch were all hatched, in an incubator, at 28/29 days, this is supposed to be the norm. I have read numerous threads that suggest that the majority of people give up around day 33 and discard eggs. Most people seem to panic if any later. I was just being curious! It goes to show, don't believe everything you read.
Click to expand...



I have a goose egg that was 42 day's old yester day and I managed to get it away from momma goose and I candeled it and the chick was moving big time in the egg so I put it back under momma and she was not pleased with me one bit ......




This is momma at 12 years old so I guess she knows her job
much better then I do
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Feeding time at the zoo
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gander007
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