Repopulate after tragedy

[AShelDuck1]

Here's another picture

 

[AShelDuck1]

I meant we would collect and eat all winter lol.

I was hoping she would get broody. But I will see if we can get an incubator.

What's the best one?

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.

 

[Gigachad poultry]

A

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.

female duck (depending on size) can hatch between 4-12 ducklings, however a incubator could hatch out 20-35 eggs depending on the brand! I think getting an incubator and hoping she goes broody is the best as it would allow for @AShelDuck1

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??

Well any eggs you collect are only good for incubation for around 8-10 days. That means you can only collect and incubate around 8-10 eggs at a time. I'd suggest you use a nature right 360 incubator, most people suggest brinsea incubator but if you are willing to pay that much you might as well just get a whole new flock imo. I will happily help you if you ever need help with incubating or if you have questions!

 

[Gigachad poultry]

Here's another picture

Definitely buff ducks

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are beautiful. How many ducks did you lose and how many are you wanting to hatch to replace those you lost?

 

[NatJ]

I meant we would collect and eat all winter lol.

Oh, that makes sense. That should work fine.

I was hoping she would get broody. But I will see if we can get an incubator.

What's the best one?

There are quite a few differences among incubators: some cost more than others, some hold more eggs than others, some have more features (like automatic turning of the eggs vs. you turning them by hand), some are from long-established brands with a good reputation while others are from newer brands and may or may not be as good a quality, etc.

For any incubator, it seems that you can find someone who had good results with it, and someone else who had problems with it.

I don't personally have much knowledge of incubator brands and features and their good & bad points, so I'm not in a position to give useful advice about choosing one.

 

[AShelDuck1]

They are beautiful. How many ducks did you lose and how many are you wanting to hatch to replace those you lost?

We lost 12!!!

I guess I would want to keep one drake and 3 females for eggs and I was planning on eating the others. So like 9 to 12 a year ? But I was hoping she would do the hard work for me. Haha.

One of my neighbors said she would incubate eggs for me! So we will see!

 

[Miss Lydia]

You may get a broody Buff I can't can't vouch for them going broody since mine never have and 2 are going on 8 yrs the other is 3yrs. If you know whos dog this was they should be liable for the damage and have to buy you ducklings to replace the 12 you lost.