Thread formerly known as Hatch day is today

[qwackers]

lol i know! i bought 4 cayugas and made a brooder in the spare room out of a plastic tub.... whew!! overnight it was awful!!!!... chloe stayed in the house tho most of the time and as long as i kept her diaper changed she was good, but one little call duck against 4 big cayugas..... no match!!

Aw poor thing! I thought diapers were a silly idea when I'd first heard of them but after having them running about the house and literally every 3 seconds shouting "poop, pass me a wet wipe" I'm so up for diapers. I can't find any though

 

[qwackers]

I've been reading tons on this thread and am so excited for this week.  I set my duck eggs on April 12.  Tomorrow I finally go on lockdown.  A few friends of mine are also starting lockdowns tomorrow (we are four teachers hatching amazing little ducklings)!   Hatch date is Thursday the 9th!  I am so excited but incredibly nervous.  To top it off, I went for my Sunday weekly check-in at school (thank goodness the custodians are so nice) and while my 6 eggs had movement, my friend's incubator down the hall was OFF!  I nearly had a heart attack because I knew it had something to do with the electricians in the school hallway this morning so I asked them if ALL the power was off on this side.  They said yes and so I carefully relocated her eggs to my classroom but by that point, the eggs were cold.   I am so sad.  Are they definitely gone?   Something also smells in her incubator but I couldn't figure out which egg it was.  

I am also nervous about setting up the brooder.  I know I need to pick up pine shavings but I read a few places that the ducklings may mistakenly eat the pine shavings?!  I don't want that to happen either!  Are there different sizes of pine shavings?

Finally, I have the brooder clamp light but I don't know what kind of bulb to buy.  Does it have to be blue-tint?  I was told a regular 75 watt light bulb is good.  

I'm worried I'll be a complete mess and have already decided to stay after school late just about everyday until they hatch.  I want to make sure humidity doesn't drop and the ducks get shrink wrapped.  This is my first hatch but I have been religiously on this website trying to learn everything and anything everyone here has to offer... please help!

Hi! Breatheeeee! I remember it well! Ok so any idea how long the power was out for? I hatched my ducks a few weeks ago now and I think it was about day 20 the bulb in the incubator blew and the eggs went cold. Think it was out for 4 hours or so. I was flapping around like crazy but was reassured when I read on the metzer site that they can survive up to 12-24 hours without heat if they are big enough to have a little body heat. Sounds like if there's a smell somebodies gone. Its important to try and find it as it can infect the other ducks and can end up exploding apparently. Try having a good sniff of each one and it should become apparent. If not look for discolored shells. Candle them and see who's moving and who's not.

Yeah I was worried about them eating the pine shavings so I just have old towels which I change twice a day. Even at 3 weeks they are investigating the garden and any tiny thing they try and eat. So even now I haven't ventured to shavings. Not sure about the size thing. I also know that in the first few days they need something flat to walk on while learning to walk or they can get splayed out legs which would have to be corrected. So that was another reason I went for towels.

As for the bulb, I went for a ceramic bulb think it is 100 watt. They are more expensive but I read in a few places that the constant light emitted from some bulbs can damage their eyes. Whereas the ceramic bulb lets them get used to the day light and night time cycles. It emits no light just heat. I wasnt sure about if it was hot enough or not but you soon see as the ducklings will either be far away from it or right under it depending if they are hot or cold.

Hope this helps you a little! good luck!

 

[angiert]

Quote: http://www.thegoosesmother.com/id47.html this is where i found diapers for chloe.... they were a bit big for her and they had to make them special order, but she had two and they've lasted 7 years and are still good. also i found a thread here where a lady made a baby duck diaper out of a kids footie sock... it was awesome...lol

 

[qwackers]

http://www.thegoosesmother.com/id47.html this is where i found diapers for chloe.... they were a bit big for her and they had to make them special order, but she had two and they've lasted 7 years and are still good. also i found a thread here where a lady made a baby duck diaper out of a kids footie sock... it was awesome...lol

that's great thanks. I wonder if she'll ship to the UK. We found out today that the ducklings can jump up a ten inch step and get in the house! Could be interesting this summer!

 

[JSelvaggi]

Hi! Breatheeeee! I remember it well! Ok so any idea how long the power was out for? I hatched my ducks a few weeks ago now and I think it was about day 20 the bulb in the incubator blew and the eggs went cold. Think it was out for 4 hours or so. I was flapping around like crazy but was reassured when I read on the metzer site that they can survive up to 12-24 hours without heat if they are big enough to have a little body heat. Sounds like if there's a smell somebodies gone. Its important to try and find it as it can infect the other ducks and can end up exploding apparently. Try having a good sniff of each one and it should become apparent. If not look for discolored shells. Candle them and see who's moving and who's not.

Yeah I was worried about them eating the pine shavings so I just have old towels which I change twice a day. Even at 3 weeks they are investigating the garden and any tiny thing they try and eat. So even now I haven't ventured to shavings. Not sure about the size thing. I also know that in the first few days they need something flat to walk on while learning to walk or they can get splayed out legs which would have to be corrected. So that was another reason I went for towels.

As for the bulb, I went for a ceramic bulb think it is 100 watt. They are more expensive but I read in a few places that the constant light emitted from some bulbs can damage their eyes. Whereas the ceramic bulb lets them get used to the day light and night time cycles. It emits no light just heat. I wasnt sure about if it was hot enough or not but you soon see as the ducklings will either be far away from it or right under it depending if they are hot or cold.

Hope this helps you a little!

good luck!

LMAO.... Hi!!! Whew ::big deep breaths:: I don't know how long the power was out for. If I had to take a guess, maybe 3 hours? I'm guessing the electricians came first thing this morning and I arrived at 9:45am. We will candle them tomorrow morning to remove whoever necessary (hopefully just one) and then they will be on official lockdown.

Is there an alternative for the bedding besides towels. Since this is a school funded project we do not have enough money to purchase a bunch of towels for the 4 teachers hatching the ducklings. The program director said we should create several layers of: garbage bags, newspaper, and shavings. Can we substitute the shavings for paper towels?

Thanks for the info. on the bulbs. I'll pick them up today!

 

[Goin Quackrrs]

Haha Yeh I took on the task lightly. Then a few days in I realised how much can go wrong! I was on the edge of a heart attack when they were hatching! Glad it's over! Now I just have a tonne of poop to deal with! It's starting to get stinky now blergh!

They only poop every six minutes...

I ran the math once... would rather be doing chicken math.

Hi! Breatheeeee! I remember it well! Ok so any idea how long the power was out for? I hatched my ducks a few weeks ago now and I think it was about day 20 the bulb in the incubator blew and the eggs went cold. Think it was out for 4 hours or so. I was flapping around like crazy but was reassured when I read on the metzer site that they can survive up to 12-24 hours without heat if they are big enough to have a little body heat. Sounds like if there's a smell somebodies gone. Its important to try and find it as it can infect the other ducks and can end up exploding apparently. Try having a good sniff of each one and it should become apparent. If not look for discolored shells. Candle them and see who's moving and who's not.

Yeah I was worried about them eating the pine shavings so I just have old towels which I change twice a day. Even at 3 weeks they are investigating the garden and any tiny thing they try and eat. So even now I haven't ventured to shavings. Not sure about the size thing. I also know that in the first few days they need something flat to walk on while learning to walk or they can get splayed out legs which would have to be corrected. So that was another reason I went for towels.

As for the bulb, I went for a ceramic bulb think it is 100 watt. They are more expensive but I read in a few places that the constant light emitted from some bulbs can damage their eyes. Whereas the ceramic bulb lets them get used to the day light and night time cycles. It emits no light just heat. I wasnt sure about if it was hot enough or not but you soon see as the ducklings will either be far away from it or right under it depending if they are hot or cold.

Hope this helps you a little!

good luck!

I've had power interruptions during incubation too. With a 3-4 hour outage in my cabinet, I still got 50% overall hatch on both chicken and duck eggs that were in there.

You'll want to identify that stinker ASAP. They do explode.

 

[JSelvaggi]

They only poop every six minutes...

I ran the math once... would rather be doing chicken math.
I've had power interruptions during incubation too. With a 3-4 hour outage in my cabinet, I still got 50% overall hatch on both chicken and duck eggs that were in there.

You'll want to identify that stinker ASAP. They do explode.

I'll be checking them all out tomorrow and taking whichever smell out ASAP... thanks!! =/

 

[ducklover87]

I have 4 Pekin eggs in the bator due to hatch the 9th. I just went to turn the eggs and my bator was at 107* will my eggs be OK? I'm not sure how long its been like that as I last checked them at like 2 or 3 o clock. Its 10:15 now. I'm not sure how this happened my bator has been steady the whole time. When I candled them I didn't see much movement. But its gotten harder for me to see in the eggs as they have grow sooo much. Will my eggs be OK or is there no hope?

 

[Goin Quackrrs]

I confess. 312 eggs in bators.

 

[michellemcfeely]

I confess. 312 eggs in bators.

WOW is all I can say to that