Texas

[tiedyemommy]

My Ebony girl was re-injured last night, Daisy mounted and bred her, and Ebony was stepped on during the round up to put everyone to bed. She can't put any weight on her right leg and is actually using her wing to scoot around. I tried penning her up by herself, but she slammed her body against the sides of the cage trying to rejoin the other ducks. I put her in the nursery with the remaining 2 goslings and not only did she settle, but the goslings are no longer screaming bloody murder when I leave them to do chores. I am soaking her in warm water baths again, both with Epsom salt and without. I think I am going to keep her away from everyone for a week or so to give her leg a chance to fully heal before making her deal with the bigger ducks again.
Any other suggestions?

Poor Ebony.

I hope she recovers quickly.

 

[8isenuff]

OK...all you Texas egg hatchers...I have to increase my hatch rates...too many late term deaths...Here's what I am doing:

I have a home made ice chest incubator. Holds temp good, holds humidity good. Calibrated the hygrometer, checked temp with medical thermometer. All good. Running 99-100 temp mostly, sometimes drops to 98 or up to 101, but that's it. Humidity at 43 days 1-18 and 63 after. I have a fan and turn the eggs (I don't open to turn) I have 5 or 6, 3/4" holes for air exchange (might be closer to an inch). I see the chicks moving before day 14...after is hard to see anything. Eggtopsies show fully formed chicks but most haven't absorbed yolk... I do hatch some, but close to only 50-60% of the fertile ones...less this time.. Whats going on? I have a neighboring chicken hatcher who runs humidity at 30 then 50-55...Is that common here in Texas? Is that working for a lot of you?

 

[tiedyemommy]

Forgot to post the pic of Fred's dust bath from Saturday. Dust + Shade = Spa Day!

 

[SlipsWife]

OK...all you Texas egg hatchers...I have to increase my hatch rates...too many late term deaths...Here's what I am doing:

I have a home made ice chest incubator. Holds temp good, holds humidity good. Calibrated the hygrometer, checked temp with medical thermometer. All good. Running 99-100 temp mostly, sometimes drops to 98 or up to 101, but that's it. Humidity at 43 days 1-18 and 63 after. I have a fan and turn the eggs (I don't open to turn) I have 5 or 6, 3/4" holes for air exchange (might be closer to an inch). I see the chicks moving before day 14...after is hard to see anything. Eggtopsies show fully formed chicks but most haven't absorbed yolk... I do hatch some, but close to only 50-60% of the fertile ones...less this time.. Whats going on? I have a neighboring chicken hatcher who runs humidity at 30 then 50-55...Is that common here in Texas? Is that working for a lot of you?

My first try at incubating was a 100% fail and I'm in the last week of my second try so I'm not much help but...

I would strongly suggest listening to people in your area (neighboring chicken hatcher) and try their suggestions, at least with humidity. I think my first hatch failed because I tried a dry hatch. My humidity was staying at 40% and I added water to bump it to 60-65% for the last few days. My theory is, from help with others in the same climate, is that they were probably shrink wrapped. We had internal pips because I could hear them chirping at me. There were 2 that absorbed their yolks, the majority of the rest seemed to have developed but didn't make it to the point of absorbing their yolks.

I also reread the instructions that came with our incubator and we should be keeping it at 60-65% for the first 18ish (I need to look at it again) days. I should have gone off of what the instructions said and not what's worked for others, at least for our first hatch. I know you said yours is homemade and I'm not sure why my incubator says such a high humidity while others say/use/have success with much lower.

Again, that's just how I'm viewing our very limited experience. If you get it all worked out, please share! I have more eggs coming in next week on Monday, with this hatch scheduled to hatch Sunday...Also, on our first hatch I did,, half our eggs/half shipped also from Texas, it was 100% failure across the board but the shipped eggs were the 2 that absorbed the yolk. This time I did the same thing, I had to pull shipped eggs at 10 days, 10 clears, 2 bloodrings. They must have had a rough shipment and came a lot further than the first eggs but home eggs are doing great still.

 

[TherryChicken]

My salmon favorelle went at me with great force when I got my hand close to her while in the nest box. She did it twice. She didn't make any noises, but she had some serious force. Im surprised she didn't brake her beak when she got the bars instead of me. I think she would have really broke skin if she got me. Is she broody or? She also didn't fluff up, she did a lil but not majorly.

 

[Starfire669]

Could that be dominance behavior?  Do ducks do that like dogs?  Sometimes dogs "mount" to show their rank over another dog.

I don't know. All I have been told is that females mating each other is very common behavior in ducks.

 

[tiedyemommy]

I don't know. All I have been told is that females mating each other is very common behavior in ducks.

Maybe ducks are, by nature, bi-sexual.

Might have to re-consider the idea of keeping Ebony as a house duck. I'm sure you could make it work...if you wanted to.

 

[Starfire669]

Poor Ebony.    I hope she recovers quickly.

Ebony is getting pampered right now. She is going to be a very tame lap duck when this is all over, lol. We give her warm water soaks with Epsom salt and without. It seems to be helping her. And I don't think it's the bottom of her foot, I think it's her hip joint that is injured. I am doing what I can to help her heal. She is getting vitamin supplements, the soaks, she is in the nursery to prevent the bigger ducks and geese from bothering her. And we carry her all over now, we don't let her walk, only swim. When we set her down we Pur her between her food and water dish so she don't have to get up. I keep trying to think of what else I can do, but I can't think of anything.

 

[Starfire669]

My salmon favorelle went at me with great force when I got my hand close to her while in the nest box. She did it twice. She didn't make any noises, but she had some serious force. Im surprised she didn't brake her beak when she got the bars instead of me. I think she would have really broke skin if she got me. Is she broody or? She also didn't fluff up, she did a lil but not majorly.

Has the hen ever attacked you like that before? We had a game hen, when i was a child, that was a demon when she had eggs or chicks to protect. Julie Brown would go for your eye sometimes trying to protect her nest. So some broody hens can get dangerously defensive of theirnests and chicks. I actually like those hens as mommas cause they will stop at nothing to protect their babies. But they also need a very protected place and special handling because of their fierceness. My parents had to make Julie Brown a coop all her own to protect the other hens, her babies, and herself. But she was an awesome momma.

 

[Starfire669]

Maybe ducks are, by nature, bi-sexual.     Might have to re-consider the idea of keeping Ebony as a house duck.  I'm sure you could make it work...if you wanted to. 

I have 1 Siberian Husky who has already killed 2 of my neighbors chicks last year. I have 3 more Siberians that I don't trust because of their prey drive, an 80 pound Rottwieller that would probably try to mother Ebony and end up squashing her to death. And 1 Belgian Malinios mix that would be OK with her after a few minutes. Plus 4 indoor cats that think they are mighty hunters cause they get occasional flys. Not a great place of little Ebony, she would have an instant heart attack meeting that crew.