They are hatching!

[mrsmartin24]

1st duckling nearly here of a possible 5!

Meet pancake! (Pic won't load. Will try again later)

Now how do I sex ducks? I'm used to hatching chicks!

 

[mrsmartin24]

 

[JadeComputerGal]

I love pics of tiny ducklings. What breed are the parents?

The only way to sex ducklings before they're old enough to voice sex is vent sexing, and that isn't something you want to do yourself if you've never done it. While it's not hard to do if you know what you're doing, you can injure or kill the bird if you don't. If you have local friends who have ducks, you could check around with them to see if they know how to vent sex. You want to avoid anyone who says something like, "I've never done it but I've seen pics. It doesn't look hard. I'll give it a try for you." You could also take them to an avian vet if you're curious enough to pay for it.

 

[enriquec]

Adorable Perkin?

I ended up not sexing, but here's what I was going to do. I decided I'd rather wait

 

[mrsmartin24]

Yes I believe they are! I don't want to risk pulling them about like that. Looks horrible for the baby! So 4 more pipped. But one the wrong end. What do I do? It has a hole to breath but I don't know if I should help or not :/ help!!!

 

[enriquec]

I'd wait. Do they look stuck? If they can move around wait, even if they can't you should wait. Here are two great guides I was told about. I had a lot of trouble waiting.. It should be a long time of no progress..

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/491013/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed

*edit* and I agree. I doubt baby would mind but I don't want to do it just to know. I'd need slightly better reason.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Wow! That is a great guide even though it was written with chickens in mind, not ducks. It basically matches everything I've read over the years about assisted duckling hatching, though she's far more emphatic about avoiding assisting unless absolutely necessary than in anything else I've read. It must have taken her a ton of time to put that guide together.

I've never been in a situation where I've needed to consider assisting, and I've never had an egg pipped at the wrong end, but I'm very grateful to have this for future reference. I really wish we could save favorites inside this site in our profile or something. I have so many bookmarks at this point in Firefox about ducks that I sometimes have trouble finding them even though I I try to keep them carefully organized.

Thanks, Enriquec (and Sally) !

 

[enriquec]

You're welcome. I started saving pages in a folder so I can quickly and easily look up info and link (w google)

Those two links I added to my sig yesterday I thought they were so useful. I definitely ended up artificially pipping all of them 24 hours of no progress. Not sure it was the right think to do, but I couldn't see any/enough harm. I had already lost a few and was freaking out during 1st hatch, and didn't want to go a 2nd night w/o sleep heh.



How are they doing mrsmartin?