THE MOTHER'S DAY HATCH-A-LONG!!!! The last day to join in and set eggs with us is April 28th.

[Arielle]

I just had one pip, zip, and pop out this morning; and I wasn't even here to see it! I left at 10:00 nothing happening, came back at 12:30 and there it was.

It looks like it might be a buff O. I started out with 7 Ameraucana eggs and 7 from the main flock that could be almost anything.

I have EE/ am , BO, BR turkey and FBCM in the incubator. Hoping to keep a few BO for me. Pretty birds. Need a little more variety to make up for a lot of black based birds because my 4 FBCM roosters got around a lot.

 

[AhyokaAcres]

I just candled the duck eggs (day...12? I believe) As of now, there are 8 viable eggs - ALL 8 I can see the itty duck embryo the size of my nail swimming around and blinking its eye at me. Too cool

So far, 8 out of 12 isn't horrible for my first time, and I will be happy with at least a 50% hatch rate.

I threw an egg from on of my white TSC ducks in a few days ago just for the heck of it to see if it was fertile. So far, nothing, but I'm going to keep an eye on the girls to see if they go broody again because she lost her entire clutch of eggs the last round and now that I have an incubator I could help her out a bit.

DH has been talking to me about incubating the duck eggs. I have no clue other than it takes about 35 days ( muscovy). He wants to eat them. Send them to the butcher and return with $60 worth of duck. Is there a tutorial on BYC for duck incubating??

ANd what do you use for a candling tool to see such detail??


I got all of my duck incubating information from here and from google, since I'm 100% new to all of this. Mine are Welsh Harlequins that take approx. 28 days. Horrible wait!
I just use a little handheld flashlight that my boyfriend uses when he gets my horses in at night. Not the brightest thing at all, yet illuminates inside the egg just wonderfully!

 

[rarely bored]

I actually about choked on what I was eating, I laughed so hard!

Oh no, I think I do too! Anyone who knows me knows how much I've always wanted broodies. I got orpingtons and sat back and waited. After 3 years I figured they were never gonna brood. Back to the drawing board. Got a speckled sussex because the breeds database referred to them as "frequently broody". She died mysteriously at 9 months having never gone broody. Got a silkie mix. She's 16 months old. Never broody. Got two pure silkies that the breeder thought looked "girly" when they were 10 weeks old. They're both now crowing at 20 weeks of age. Picked a cochin out of the straight run bin this Spring. He joined the silkies crowing when he was 9 weeks old.

The ONLY hen I've ever had brood was a BSL - a hybrid less likely to brood (she was a great mama). And now I think my Sultan is broody. Of all the breeds I have and it is the Ornamental, light laying, seldom-goes-broody breed hen that decides to brood???? I'm going to give her a day or two but she's been sitting all day today except when she was kicked out of the nest by my Cuckoo Marans and made a big stink about it until she got the nest back.

Right now my two hatchery quality buff orpingtons are broody, and my SQ blue orpington is pretending to be broody for hours at a time, but not all the time, (maybe because the BO steals her eggs?) I only have one BO separated out into a broody pen, maybe I should make another nesting box so the two broodies can knit the quilts together. Sigh. Part of me is wondering if having a flock full of orpingtons is a good idea?


Love the chirping stories! Glad I'm not the only one with random chirp tinnitus.

 

[yinepu]

DH has been talking to me about incubating the duck eggs. I have no clue other than it takes about 35 days ( muscovy). He wants to eat them. Send them to the butcher and return with $60 worth of duck. Is there a tutorial on BYC for duck incubating??

lol.. I have 24 muscovy eggs in the bator right now.. 22 of which are fertile and growing.. 2 are clears

What all did you need to know?.. I tend to get 90% hatch rate on shipped muscovy eggs

 

[Bigfamily4me]

lol.. I have 24 muscovy eggs in the bator right now.. 22 of which are fertile and growing.. 2 are clears

What all did you need to know?.. I tend to get 90% hatch rate on shipped muscovy eggs

I have a question... Do the ducks hatch out easily or do they tend to need help. I swear I have heard from other oils that they can't get duckso hatch on their own. They can't gt out of their shell. I have one pipped right now but it looks different. A chick pip tends to look like a hole. This duck pip looks more like a cracked mound push up from the inside. As it try to zip, much the same thing. Cracking, mounding shell, but it doesn't actually crack through the shell. Like making crack on the inside of the hell, bit it doesn't crack through to the outside of the shell.

I don't know if this makes sense or not. I also read somewhere it can and will take 48 hrs from pip to pop on a duk, where typically its more 24 hr-ish or chicks before you help.

(I just really want some ducks to hatch! My kids hearts are set on it!)

 

[Bigfamily4me]

So sorry for all the typos! That's what I get for not reading it before I post it!

 

[rebelINny]

Ok so all my eggs are in lockdown...need to go count how many that is Ok I have a total of 41 eggs in lockdown of 52 I set in total.

Most are shipped.

 

[yinepu]

I have a question... Do the ducks hatch out easily or do they tend to need help. I swear I have heard from other oils that they can't get duckso hatch on their own. They can't gt out of their shell. I have one pipped right now but it looks different. A chick pip tends to look like a hole. This duck pip looks more like a cracked mound push up from the inside. As it try to zip, much the same thing. Cracking, mounding shell, but it doesn't actually crack through the shell. Like making crack on the inside of the hell, bit it doesn't crack through to the outside of the shell.
I don't know if this makes sense or not. I also read somewhere it can and will take 48 hrs from pip to pop on a duk, where typically its more 24 hr-ish or chicks before you help.
(I just really want some ducks to hatch! My kids hearts are set on it!)

I've hatched out a lot of ducks.. in my experience they are pretty easy hatchers
They can take a while.. most of the time if they need help it's because the incubation humidity was too high and the duckling doesn't have enough room to turn around in the shell

what is the humidity now in your bator?.. they do need high hatch humidity .. so it sounds like he may be breaking the shell but not getting all the way through the membrane

 

[lcammack]

Hi everyone! I have a question for the more experienced than I. This is our first try with incubating and so far (knock on wood) we are having great success. We started with 42 and have 39 still growing as of day 16. We did a full candle and could see everyone of them moving. So we are on day 18! Lock down today, my question is, what do you use in your incubators under the eggs, I have seen some use cheese cloth, looks like some use the non slip shelf liner with the little holes in it? We are using a hovabator 1588 and it has the wire floor over the plastic liner. I wanted to do what was best for a the chicks. Thanks for any ideas or opinions.

edit - grammer

 

[yinepu]

Hi everyone! I have a question for the more experienced than I. This is our first try with incubating and so far (knock on wood) we are having great success. We started with 42 and have 39 still growing as of day 16. We did a full candle and could see everyone of them moving. So we are on day 18! Lock down today, my question is, what do you use in your incubators under the eggs, I have seen some use cheese cloth, looks like some use the non slip shelf liner with the little holes in it? We are using a hovabator 1588 and it has the wire floor over the plastic liner. I wanted to do what was best for a the chicks. Thanks for any ideas or opinions.

edit - grammer

I love this stuff.. best thing in the world to prevent spraddle legs..
I use it in the bators at hatch as well as in the brooders