So has ANYONE had success with incubating shipped wild duck eggs?

[fowllover]

of course... temperature i set around 100.2 degrees, humidity i just followed the directions of the brinsea mini advanced. Fill one of the sections up until about day 26 or 27 and then fill both up from day 26/27 until they hatch. I dont know what the actual humidity was... This incubator has an auto turner that I set at every 2 hours. However for these shipped duck eggs because I had problems with them internally pipping and then dyinging without getting out the shell i decided to help them this time. As soon as they internally pipped I carefully opened the shell for them where the air sac was. I gradually chipped the whole top part away for them and stopped where their membrane was... There membrane does dry out though so you have to keep n eye on them and wet them with water every now and then, especially when you think they are about ready to come out of the shell. It took 2 to even 3 days for some of the ducklings to come out of the shell after internally pipping. All five hatched successfully, but 3 were weak and did not make it. The other two are doing great though and growing like weeds. I might have even got lucky.. I sexed them and I THINK i have a male and a female. I have a male for sure, but the other one I am not positive about. I know some people say you shouldnt help the ducks hatch but I wouldn't do it any other way, at least for shipped eggs. You just have to know what you are doing. I would highly recommend the brinsea mini advanced though. The three times I have hatched wood duck and mallard eggs that were not shipped, i have gotten a 100% hatch rate for those that were fertile.. I guess the only big downfall is that it can only hold 7 eggs at a time, for those people that need more spacing. Well anyways I think thats about it, hope this helps!

How can you tell if they are internally pipped? Are you candling?

 

[lschin1]

oh yeah sorry I am candling. you'll see their little beaks in the air cell when they are internally pipped. you might be able to find pictures online somewhere if you don't know what that looks like. Are you trying to hatch mandarin duck eggs as well?

 

[bribre]

Wow your so lucky!! I have one male mandarin duck and can't seem to fine any mandarins eggs or ducks anywhere even clause to where I live... Congregations!!

 

[bribre]

Hey I would love to see some updated pics of your baby's!!

 

[nhbradley]

I have read over and over again that it is best to not buy shipped wild duck eggs (like mandarin or wood ducks) for incubation as they don't do well, and have read many peoples failed attempt stories but wanted to hear if anyone has actually had any success. About two summers ago I found out about Mandarin ducks and thought I would LOVE to have some so I bought six eggs off of ebay. NONE developed. I bought them from a breeder that was located in Rhode Island which I now realize was probably a dumb thing to do because I live in Louisiana and that is probably too long of a drive for the eggs, seeing that they have more potential to be damaged. Shortly after, I saw four eggs located in Florida on ebay, so i decided to try again as long as I got them for cheap, which I did. 15$ for the four of them when they usually go about 10 dollars an egg. This time two developed the whole way through but died right when they were suppose to hatch! One died without even pipping and the other internally pipped and then died. I have the Brinsea MIni Advanced incubator and filled both little trays up with water when it was hatch time so the humidity should have been high enough. I have hatched wood duck eggs and mallard eggs in this incubator with no problem (they weren't shipped eggs though). So I am thinking it must have something to do with shipping that affects them later on when they are suppose to hatch, even though they developed the whole way through. So the following spring I gave up on buying shipped duck eggs, but this spring I just HAD to try ONE last time. I know it sounds really stupid and stubborn to keep trying and waisting all that money but i couldn't help it, and the money isn't that big of an issue to me. This will be my last effort though! lol. So, I bought seven eggs off of ebay at an okay price from a breeder in Texas. They all arrived very quickly and safely and I could tell they were really well packaged. Out of the seven eggs, 6 developed but one just died recently after about 13 days of incubation. The remaining 5 are doing good and are due to hatch on the 18th. 13 more days left! The air cells all look good too and weren't damaged in shipping. So we'll have to wait and see what happens! I do still realize the same thing can happen as last time though, but I'll update ya'll if anyone is interested! Anyways, I am interested to know, has anyone else had ANY success hatching shipped duck eggs?

Hello, yes we have mandarins and they do everything just fine and if you want to pull a few out to incubate I can do that also. I do have a few wood ducks and I'm learning about them now but they have laid eggs. I don't think they're old enough to know what to do yet but probably next year. So you can incubate an they wish or let them stay with the mom. Then you need to look up humidity and temperature I have a pretty good incubator. I wish you the best of luck

 

[nhbradley]

Wow your so lucky!! I have one male mandarin duck and can't seem to fine any mandarins eggs or ducks anywhere even clause to where I live... Congregations!!

I have nineteen Mandarin eggs in my home and the ones in the incubator that are growing well. I cannot sell them yet until the person that bought them finally gets back to me!