Please Help!! 😥 BEI Duckling not eating and losing weight

[Miss Lydia]

What breed are your ducks? That was the problem with my hatch my Muscovy sitting on Runner eggs and she crushed the eggs because she insisted on moving all the shavings out of the way and had the eggs sitting on hard surface when I found the one crushed I brought the last 2 eggs inside in the brooder since their egg shells were already cracked open. Just stood an watch those 2 hatch all on their own.

 

[Jpat]

How are the belgian chicks doing? Did they hatch under a broody?

 

[OliveGreen]

What breed are your ducks? That was the problem with my hatch my Muscovy sitting on Runner eggs and she crushed the eggs because she insisted on moving all the shavings out of the way and had the eggs sitting on hard surface when I found the one crushed I brought the last 2 eggs inside in the brooder since their egg shells were already cracked open. Just stood an watch those 2 hatch all on their own.

That was a lucky save! It’s really wonderful watching them hatch! Nerve wracking, but wonderful.

Hazel’s not quite a bantam, but the lightest of the light breeds. She’s an Elizabeth duck which is very rare breed from Australia, (and she’s actually a bit smaller than the standard). They look a lot like bantam Welsh Harlequins. She weighs about 1.3kgs, so similar to a Mallard.

There was a second egg that had pipped and began to zip, but when I found it on Tuesday it was dead in the egg. I’m not sure if that one may have suffocated before hatching... she was sitting on them quite heavily (not like my Campbell who sort of ‘hovered’ over her eggs once they began to hatch.

She was such an incredibly determined broody, but I guess she just doesn’t quite have the intuitive knack for mothering (yet). Strange, since she was mother-raised while my old Campbell girl was born in an industrial sized incubator at a factory farm!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Aww sorry about the roo. Hazel sounds lovely. Maybe you can share some pics of your ducks with us we love pics and your chicks to?

 

[OliveGreen]

Oh no!! I am so sorry about the little baby!

Thank you Quackiemama ❤
She was such a sweet little thing

 

[OliveGreen]

Sometimes first time Mommas are confused. Seriously it's nothing you did wrong. I'd let her try again and I'm sure she will know better the next time.
I had one that set the eggs and the day they began hatching she never returned to the nest. I hatched them in my incubator.
She was scared of the Peeps.
Better luck next time.

Thanks Chickens!
I’ll see how thing are looking next spring and if she’s keen I’ll give her another go (but have a much better back up plan this time just in case!)

 

[Miss Lydia]

What a nice hat! lol they are so cute love feathered feed chickens my fav are Cochin bantam. Like those beards too

 

[Miss Lydia]

I still have that duckling he’s 8 yrs old. They really do get grumpy In old age mainly my females just like us lol.

 

[DuckyDonna]

Yes @OliveGreen someone is almost always available to help, and most of us actually have ducks and have had them for years!

 

[OliveGreen]

thanks so much for the pictures. We don't hear all that much about Elizabeth ducks on here. I was just reading about them and see that they are meat birds. I hope you don't eat them!

Nope most definitely not!!!
My duckies are my family
...and besides Hazel lays the most beautiful green eggs, and plenty of them when she’s not in a broody trance. I’m really not sure why you’d breed a beautiful little nugget like her for meat!