Silver mandarin eggs

[BYC-user-174785]

destinduck, if you find the pictures I would love to see them.

 

[destinduck]

delete

 

[finchamdan]

I have a fairly good incubator so I should do ok.

 

[finchamdan]

I had 12 normal mandarin eggs. 12 fertile and hatched.
temperature set at 37.5 c 50% humidity. 60% last 3 days. All hatched ok using a rcom20 . Now I use an rcom50.
i must add the lid was only removed once during incubation so heat was constant.

 

[destinduck]

delete

 

[MAX PRODUCTION]

Destin Duck, it seems pretty silly to me to generalize all Americans as having lower hatch rates. I'm in America and I have good hatch successes (ranging from 80-100%) for wild waterfowl eggs.

I use an R-Com 20 too. I would highly recommend them to anyone. The trick to really make an R-Com sing is to check the temperature and humidity calibrations with a secondary tester. The settings out of the box are usually pretty close but if you want them spot on you need to check and readjust.

I hope this is helpful. I'm new here and not trying to be bellicose but I'm proud of my hatching successes.

Also, on the taking eggs from the nest to encourage more eggs I have found that letting the hen lay a complete clutch, incubate for a few days, and then removing the whole clutch and cleaning out the nest box works very well. Think about a duck in the wild. Would a wild duck keep laying in a nest that keeps being predated (missing eggs)? No. If the whole clutch is removed, it triggers a re-nesting attempt. I let the female sit on the second clutch until they are pipped or freshly hatched. It may sound silly but I think rewarding females with the experience of hatching eggs helps encourage nesting attempts in future breeding seasons.

Well...I hope I don't get torn apart for disagreeing.

Danny

 

[BYC-user-174785]

I agree destinduck. Even when my oldest pair of breeder mandarins hatched out babies, not all of the eggs hatched. I saw them constantly breeding, and I let her incubate six eggs and was lucky enough to get five ducklings. I consider that an amazing hatch, but having all the eggs hatch in an incubator sounds challenging to me. I guess if you truly have that much luck with an incubator, then go ahead and stick with an incubator. Either way what we say is opinion based and the final choice is up to you. I wish you the best of luck with the eggs. Also be sure to post pictures of you adult ducks and when you get ducklings, I would like to see pictures of them too because I will have to wait a while before my ducks even start laying.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

Also, on the taking eggs from the nest to encourage more eggs I have found that letting the hen lay a complete clutch, incubate for a few days, and then removing the whole clutch and cleaning out the nest box works very well. Think about a duck in the wild. Would a wild duck keep laying in a nest that keeps being predated (missing eggs)? No. If the whole clutch is removed, it triggers a re-nesting attempt. I let the female sit on the second clutch until they are pipped or freshly hatched. It may sound silly but I think rewarding females with the experience of hatching eggs helps encourage nesting attempts in future breeding seasons.

I do have some females that have never hatched out ducklings that always lay each year and would nest given the chance. I do let some hens naturally incubate around half of their eggs even if it is just their first clutch. Some of my older hens are great with that. They hatch out ducklings but still always lay a second clutch, which is of course smaller.

Thank you for the information about the incubator. Maybe I should check it out if it works so well.

 

[finchamdan]

I thought you meant silver mandarins specifically because they are a mutation colour. I have Chilean teal eggs in incubator now and they are doing well

 

[finchamdan]

hi there,
yes i use inside thermometer to check temp is correct.
My idea for removing eggs on this particular bird is to leave two eggs in her box till she lays 3 then remove 1 when she has 3 again. As it is common knowledge that birds can only count up to three and any extra is surplus.

However i may use your strategy on letting the birds brood and take away them near hatch. Dive in to the pyschology of birds, lol.