Repopulate after tragedy

[AShelDuck1]

We had a tragedy. An animal got in and murdered my ducks! These two survived.

One male and one female (what breed? Saxony?)

What are the chances that they can repopulate my ducks? And how do I encourage that? I just don't know if I can afford to get more again after losing that! I'm so upset. Ok I could probably afford it but I just would like to IDK recover.

I'm getting buff Orpington chickens in the spring.

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

We had a tragedy. An animal got in and murdered my ducks! These two survived.

One male and one female (what breed? Saxony?)

What are the chances that they can repopulate my ducks? And how do I encourage that? I just don't know if I can afford to get more again after losing that! I'm so upset. Ok I could probably afford it but I just would like to IDK recover.

I'm getting buff Orpington chickens in the spring.

They seem to be a rare breed called Buff Orpington duck or buff duck! You could get an incubator and hatch out to s of eggs. I'm not sure how broody they are, but it is possible. This late in the summer they'd likely not go broody. These are what Buff Orpington ducks look like.

 

[NatJ]

One male and one female (what breed? Saxony?)

What are the chances that they can repopulate my ducks? And how do I encourage that? I just don't know if I can afford to get more again after losing that! I'm so upset. Ok I could probably afford it but I just would like to IDK recover.

If you keep them safe from any other predators, she should lay plenty of eggs in the spring. Since there is a male, the eggs should be fertile, which means they will be able to hatch if they get incubated (under a duck or in an incubator.)

The female duck may go broody in the spring. Broody is when a duck wants to sit on eggs and hatch them. She quits laying eggs during that time. Some ducks do this, and some do not. I cannot predict whether yours will. I do not know of any way to encourage this, other than making sure they have a safe pen and general good care.

If she does not go broody, or if you get impatient waiting, you can get an incubator and hatch eggs. This also lets you hatch more eggs than what the female duck could sit on at once.

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

We had a tragedy. An animal got in and murdered my ducks! These two survived.

One male and one female (what breed? Saxony?)

What are the chances that they can repopulate my ducks? And how do I encourage that? I just don't know if I can afford to get more again after losing that! I'm so upset. Ok I could probably afford it but I just would like to IDK recover.

I'm getting buff Orpington chickens in the spring.

https://fowlguide.com/buff-orpington-ducks/

This might help you a bit! Also these are what Saxony ducks look like.

 

[AShelDuck1]

They seem to be a rare breed called Buff Orpington duck or buff duck! You could get an incubator and hatch out to s of eggs. I'm not sure how broody they are, but it is possible. This late in the summer they'd likely not go broody. These are what Buff Orpington ducks look like.
View attachment 3643205

That's them alright! I thought for a minute you posted a picture of my ducks and I was confused. Lol

Ok. So just collect eggs over the winter and maybe brood in the spring?

Or incubator them??

 

[Miss Lydia]

I think you have Buffs they look very much like my 3. Mine have never gone broody but there are always exceptions. And an incubator is always a choice. Or my fav incubator is a Muscovy duck they live to hatch. And are great mamas. Can you get a better close up? So we can say for sure what they are?
Also do you know what predator you’re dealing with. It will be back so hopefully you have or are working on better security for your two remaining ducks. Very sorry for your losses.

 

[Jenbirdee]

first secure the coop from the predators, they will come back. i am so sorry for your loss. it’s so hard to lose our darling ducks.
i don’t know how long a fertile egg stays fertile but i don’t think winter eggs would still be good to incubate in spring. probably collect spring eggs for idk maybe 2 weeks and then incubate them? does someone else know how long time can pass that they’re still able to be incubated?

 

[AShelDuck1]

I think you have Buffs they look very much like my 3. Mine have never gone broody but there are always exceptions. And an incubator is always a choice. Or my fav incubator is a Muscovy duck they live to hatch. And are great mamas. Can you get a better close up? So we can say for sure what they are?
Also do you know what predator you’re dealing with. It will be back so hopefully you have or are working on better security for your two remaining ducks. Very sorry for your losses.

We caught and delt with the predator. It was a dog. The fence was reinforced.

 

[Galaxy_rules]

I don’t know much about ducks but I am sorry for your loss

 

[NatJ]

Ok. So just collect eggs over the winter and maybe brood in the spring?

Or incubator them??

It is best if you only store eggs for about a week before you incubate them. Maybe up to two weeks. So collecting eggs all winter is not going to work particularly well.

If you use an incubator, it is best if all the eggs are hatching at the same time. So you might collect all eggs that get laid within a two week period, and put them in all at once. The eggs that were stored for less than one week will be most likely to hatch, but the eggs there were stored between one and two weeks will probably have quite a few hatch too.

If you want more ducklings than that, you can get more than one incubator. For most purposes, two is enough: the eggs can incubate in one, and hatch in the other, and you don't have the problems of ducklings making a sticky mess on eggs that still need a few more weeks of incubating.

With two incubators, it can work well to put in new eggs once a week. That way you do not store eggs for more than a week before they get incubated. Just mark the eggs so you can identify them again.
For each batch of eggs, about 3 days before they are due to hatch, move them to the second incubator.
Once the first eggs have hatched, clean up the mess in that second incubator, and you are ready to move in the eggs that need to hatch the next week.

You can keep that system going pretty much as long as the duck is laying eggs, or until you have as many ducklings as you want.

For raising the ducklings, newly-hatched ones should be in a brooder with no older ducklings. But once they are a bit older, you can mix some of the ages together, so you do not need one pen for every single week that you hatched ducklings. For example, ducklings that are two weeks and three weeks old can share a pen with no trouble, and they can continue to stay together as they grow up. I am not positive how many ages you can mix, but a bit of experimenting and watching will probably let you figure it out fairly quickly.