Crazyducklady7
In the Brooder
- May 13, 2020
- 53
- 44
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I just wanted to share my journey of my first time incubating duck eggs. I was very intimidated at first. Everyone said it was so hard and told me what to do and what not to do and I heard so many different stories and advice. Well I set out on my incubation journey wanting to get some babies from my favorite drake. Ancona. The mommas were pekin and mallard. I started out with 11 eggs. One passed a week before hatching. Lethal gene I’m sure. (I’ll get to that) anyway, humidity stayed at 55%. After 10 days I would take the eggs out once every 3-4 days, cool down and misted them and put them back. I also candled them every single day to watch them grow. Well day 28 came around and sure enough they started hatching. One struggled. He externally pipped. I didn’t want to interfere so I left him. I waited. 3 days passed so I helped him. I zipped the egg for him and let him do the rest. Well, turns out he couldn’t. He couldn’t move! His poor little foot wrapped around his face. I helped enough and all he had to do was stand up and he was good to go! Success. Now perfectly happy. (That was the mallard). It does have one leg longer than the other. We call that one peg. Well all others hatched and then the last one. This baby has wry neck. (3 weeks old and doing great!) called the vet, (were good friends) she said it will be just fine and she sees it a lot in ducklings that come from tractor supply. The girls came from tractor supply. I will not be hatching the mallard eggs again! But I just wanted everyone to hear a positive story! It’s not as intimidating as it seems. I’ve hatched duck eggs ever since with 100% hatch rates! The first I had 10/11 hatch. Not bad odds.
These are peg and Crick (those are their names for now)
These are peg and Crick (those are their names for now)
