Shetland Duck Hatch🦆

[KingD]

Hello all!

I have officially bought my first ever 'fertile' duck eggs!!
Im seriously looking forward to the hatching process and the raising of the ducklings.

I purchased 6 eggs which arrived in the post today (I hate shipping eggs but never mind). Beautiful white eggs.

Here is a photo of the ducks which the eggs were from.

So the breed of duck is the Shetland which as the name suggests is native to the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland. They are classed as a critically endangered breed which is the main reason for my attempt to hatch to support the breed.


I have hatched hundreds of chicken eggs but never a duck so I'm going to have to ask quite a few questions along the way I guess.

The eggs will be going into the incubator tommorow so I'll give updates from then onwards up until the hatching. Or maybe i won't bore you with boring egg candling updates. Anyway we'll see what happens...


If anyone has any advice for a first time duck hatcher then please don't hesitate to give it. Thank you!


E.B

 

[Chickeria]

Those are beautiful ducks! Fingers crossed you will have a successful hatch
Sorry I can't be of any help with advices, I never owned or hatched ducks.

Keep us posted

 

[Chickeria]

Hi KingB how are your eggs doing? Did you candle in the meanwhile? Do you have pictures of your duck eggs

 

[KingD]

Oh yes!!! Nearly forgot about this thread!
Thanks for asking..
1 egg doesn't seem to be fertile but I'm waiting another week to see if there's any hope left for it. The other 5 look good. One of them actually cracked a little before I put it in the incubator but it looks like it's possibly doing ok despite what happened to it.
I'm always a little bit nervous when buying eggs off of eBay and such places as the shipping has proved to really effect the hatching of eggs but we'll see!

When they get a bit further into the incubation I'll take some candling photos for whoever's Interested.

Thanks again!

 

[Chickeria]

Hopefully the 6th egg will be fertile, too, and the egg with the slight crack will make it! I'm looking forward to the candling photos

 

[KingD]

Thank you!

 

[Chickeria]

Hi KingB, how are all your eggs doing?
Is the 6th egg fertile? How is the egg with the crack?

 

[Yardmom]

Hopefully you have figured out by now that hatching ducks is like hatching chicks except for time. Give the same amount of time for lockdown, and be prepared for a little more time between pip and zip.

 

[KingD]

Hi KingB, how are all your eggs doing?
Is the 6th egg fertile? How is the egg with the crack?

Hey so so sorry not to respond!!
I stopped getting notified for some reason.
There are a total of 4 eggs which are progressing very well indeed. The cracked one started to get veins but decided to quit half way which was a shame. There was one other which was not fertile.
Just candled the eggs and the 4 are doing great. All actively moving around when candled.
I'll get some candling pics tonight for anyone who's interested.
7 days to go until they are due to hatch!

 

[KingD]

Hopefully you have figured out by now that hatching ducks is like hatching chicks except for time. Give the same amount of time for lockdown, and be prepared for a little more time between pip and zip.

Yes I understand thank you.
I can already see myself becoming a duck hatching addict.