Pekin Duck Club!

[mandycarlo]

So sorry to hear about your babies :/ prayers go out to you and pray the new one hatches fine !!!

 

[ajphil09]

Thank you, our new baby is named Wicket, I keep praying and I'm pretty sure Luke and Leia are looking out for him! He's making progress, so I am hopeful

 

[Strawberryswyrl]

First of all, congrats on the egg laying! I'm waiting for mine to start any time now. My Rouens are 21 weeks old now, and the three hens follow the one drake around with their heads down low, bobbing and quacking like crazy, being submissive to him, and he just runs around the 10x10 pen like he doesn't know what to do, even though I had seen him try to get amorous with the smallest hen a few days ago, and she pushed him away (she's being stand-offish, because the other 2 would like to get it on, but he's chosen her to be his fav)! LOL! I had 6 Jumbo Pekins and 6 Rouens, but realized a couple of weeks ago that I had 5 Jumbo Pekin drakes to 1 hen... and 4 of the boys were approaching sexual maturity... I could just imagine the poor girl who wasn't old enough yet (10 weeks) being raped by the 4! So, they had to be re-homed (and I'm sorry if I offend, but they got re-homed to the freezer camp, but that was the purpose of getting the birds... being self-sufficient by producing my own eggs and meat). So, I kept the 1 hen who is 10 weeks old, and the 1 drake who is the same age as her (got them as a pair). I'll get a couple more hens in the spring, for him, unless they start producing eggs by then (doubt it, but who knows???). My Rouens... 3 drakes to 3 hens... again, too much testosterone in the pen! Reduced the drake population to 1... the best looking 1 of the 3. So, now I'm down to 6 ducks as we approach winter (supposed to be unseasonably cold by the 23rd of the month, here in North Dakota... winter will be coming on early). Keeping my fingers crossed that I will get some eggs before we get locked down for winter. They will be moved into a pen in the chicken house partitioned off specifically for them for the winter, so that's the other reason for downsizing the flock.

Second of all... duck eggs take ~28 days to incubate. If you candle to see veins at 3 days, you're not going to see anything, and you could be throwing out very fertile eggs without knowing it. Recommend you wait until at least 10-14 days, if you're serious about doing this right. Patience is a virtue!

Well I did later figure out about veins developing around seven days and waited until then to see. The "red eye" was supposed to develop around the third or fourth day which would be the eye of the chick, and neither developed. This was back in early August. I had eight eggs that I candled after a little over a week and saw nothing. I ended up cracking them all open, with no surprises, and putting them down the garbage disposal. After that it occurred to me that my male simply wasn't doing his job lol. I just incubated a batch of 13 over a period of a week and candled them the other night to find that they were all infertile, as well. My two ducks were killed by foxes a couple weeks ago when I had to take them to my mom's to have her take care of them while I was out of town. She didn't lock them up one night and off they went. Anywhere, as far as culling ducks for sustenance... it's a way of life for some people. Especially in an area like North Dakota. The Peking were bred and raised for meat production, and especially the Jumbo Peking, which I have ordered two of as my next pets, to arrive in a couple weeks (male and female.) Abigail and Bo-Khan

 

[Strawberryswyrl]

My mothers dog killed my babies today, Leia is on the left and Luke is on the right. I am so devastated right now I can barely function. I can't believe they are gone. I have their baby who hatched this morning with a lot of struggle, his yoke hasn't fully absorbed so if you would send some duck prayers his way, and for Luke and Leia. We all need it. <3

Awwwe I'm so sorry for your loss. I lost my two recently because my mother didn't bother to lock mine up when I was away and foxes got them. It was two weeks ago and I'm still upset. I hope you feel better soon. And you're lucky you got a little one from them. I hope he does well.

 

[ajphil09]

I WISH I COULD HUG YOU RIGHT NOW! Everyone's sympathetic but I don't think they really understand. My mom just texted me Wicket didn't make it I'm taking a break from ducks for a bit, I couldn't handle this happening again!! I'm so sorry for your loss

 

[mandycarlo]

So sorry was praying baby would make it ::

 

[ajphil09]

Thank you mandycarlo!! Unfortunately I think it's because I am in school and I wasn't there for him luckily he has the 2 greatest parents waiting for him I'm just trying to stay positive!!

 

[ajphil09]

But I pretty much just wanna crawl into their hole with them. Sorry for all the posts I just can't believe this is happening

 

[mandycarlo]

:/ we understand bad things happen in life and it sucks

 

[kodster]

My little Billie-Beak left 13 eggs behind in her nest before her and her mate were killed a few days ago. I have them in a home-made incubator and I hope it works out. A few of the eggs are double-yolks. These eggs have very, very thick shells on them and I wonder if that's normal and if a chick would be able to pip through if any were to even develop. I have eaten some of her eggs before and had to whack them HARD with a butter knife to crack them open.. they were like stones. I will candle the eggs in a week and see if any are fertile. I have attempted this before with no success. My little girl layed 31 eggs in her nearly 6-month lifetime.

That's why you increase the humidity up so much in the last 3 days before hatching... the extra moisture softens up the shell, so they can pip externally, and then zip the shell to get out. I hope you were able to get fertility in some of the eggs... the double-yolkers, likely not fertile. I have see one set of twins come out of a double-yolker, but that's extremely rare. Again, because duck eggs take ~28 days to hatch, I'd suggest you wait until 14 days before candling to see if they develop or not.