I'm thrilled, and scared. I recently lost my oldest of 5 ducks to a predator, and the youngest girl turned out to be a draklet. Leaving me with 2 drakes and 2 hens. Long story short, I ordered eggs from Ebay.
12 eggs that might give me , lavender, silver, blue, chocolate and a color I have never heard of, mid-purple. I will be over the moon if I get 2 females from this hatch.
The eggs came beautifully packed, with no broken shells. They also included 4 extra! Most of the air cells were wobbly, some were rock solid and a few looked really iffy.
On the 31st I put them under my broody muscovy. She had a nest of 12 she was building. I removed most of her eggs and replaced them with the shipped ones. I hoped the extra number would push her into fulltime sitting. It took two days I would say before she was full pancake, down feather lined and parked on them for the long haul.
At one week I snuck out and candled the eggs. All of shipped eggs were fertile and developing! She also had four of her own eggs that I didnt have a chance to check.
Today is the 19th and I just ran out there this morning when she was bathing and candled them again. It was pretty light, but I could just make out aircells and even a few veins. All 16 shipped seem to be alive. one of the eggs was stained pretty badly with blue berry poo or juice. The stains have absorbed into the egg shell and it looks scary and I can only see some of the air cell. I tried smelling it, and it smells like duck butt, like all the others. She walked through a blueberry mess on they way back to her nest one day and a number of the eggs are sporting some purple spots. I assume this would happen in nature and decided to leave them alone. Of the 4 that were hers, one was removed today, infertile and with two drakes, go figure. 6 of the shipped egg aircells are good, no wobbles.
This will be my first hatch of shipped eggs. Have I made any mistakes do you think? I'm worried about letting the eggs sit one day in the house and than the two they spent in the nest before she went full time broody. When do you think the hatch day will be? Should I remove the badly stained egg? Is there anything I can do at this time to help the still moving aircell eggs?
I'll post some pictures when my son wakes up and shows me how to make the pictures from my phone show up on the computer faster.
12 eggs that might give me , lavender, silver, blue, chocolate and a color I have never heard of, mid-purple. I will be over the moon if I get 2 females from this hatch.
The eggs came beautifully packed, with no broken shells. They also included 4 extra! Most of the air cells were wobbly, some were rock solid and a few looked really iffy.
On the 31st I put them under my broody muscovy. She had a nest of 12 she was building. I removed most of her eggs and replaced them with the shipped ones. I hoped the extra number would push her into fulltime sitting. It took two days I would say before she was full pancake, down feather lined and parked on them for the long haul.
At one week I snuck out and candled the eggs. All of shipped eggs were fertile and developing! She also had four of her own eggs that I didnt have a chance to check.
Today is the 19th and I just ran out there this morning when she was bathing and candled them again. It was pretty light, but I could just make out aircells and even a few veins. All 16 shipped seem to be alive. one of the eggs was stained pretty badly with blue berry poo or juice. The stains have absorbed into the egg shell and it looks scary and I can only see some of the air cell. I tried smelling it, and it smells like duck butt, like all the others. She walked through a blueberry mess on they way back to her nest one day and a number of the eggs are sporting some purple spots. I assume this would happen in nature and decided to leave them alone. Of the 4 that were hers, one was removed today, infertile and with two drakes, go figure. 6 of the shipped egg aircells are good, no wobbles.
This will be my first hatch of shipped eggs. Have I made any mistakes do you think? I'm worried about letting the eggs sit one day in the house and than the two they spent in the nest before she went full time broody. When do you think the hatch day will be? Should I remove the badly stained egg? Is there anything I can do at this time to help the still moving aircell eggs?
I'll post some pictures when my son wakes up and shows me how to make the pictures from my phone show up on the computer faster.
