Trisseh
Duck-duck-chicken!
Hey guys! I hatched out 6 ducklings a little over a week ago. 5 Indian runners and one magpie. The runners all hatched ok, within 24 hours of each other. One had an eye issue but otherwise they’re all normal. They’re growing like they should be, exponentially increasing in weight, that kind of thing. The magpie, on the other hand, has been nothing but trouble from the beginning.
These were shipped eggs, and the magpie had pin holes in the shell. I couldn’t tell if they were through the membrane or not, but set it anyways as it was the only one the seller sent me. (I had ordered half and half magpie and runners but they didn’t have enough eggs to fill even half my order).
It developed fine, no problems that I could see, but it didn’t hatch on time with the others. It didn’t even internally pip until an entire day after the others, and when it finally did come time to hatch I had to assist it as it couldn’t seem to orient itself to push the shell off.
It was doing ok, but was SO much smaller than the rest. Had a hard time picking up food, took a while to get it started drinking water, and then at 3 days of age it got bowled over and injured it’s left leg.
it’s been in its own brooder since then, and it did have an injury, so I expected it to be slower in growth, but it hasn’t even doubled its weight in over a week. It hatched at 34g, and is now 58g.
so now I have it in hobbles, in its own brooder, so it doesn’t get damaged further. It has no competition for food now and it eats well, but it’s still soooo slow growing!
And of course. It’s a drake
anyone else experience anything similar before?
These were shipped eggs, and the magpie had pin holes in the shell. I couldn’t tell if they were through the membrane or not, but set it anyways as it was the only one the seller sent me. (I had ordered half and half magpie and runners but they didn’t have enough eggs to fill even half my order).
It developed fine, no problems that I could see, but it didn’t hatch on time with the others. It didn’t even internally pip until an entire day after the others, and when it finally did come time to hatch I had to assist it as it couldn’t seem to orient itself to push the shell off.
It was doing ok, but was SO much smaller than the rest. Had a hard time picking up food, took a while to get it started drinking water, and then at 3 days of age it got bowled over and injured it’s left leg.
it’s been in its own brooder since then, and it did have an injury, so I expected it to be slower in growth, but it hasn’t even doubled its weight in over a week. It hatched at 34g, and is now 58g.
so now I have it in hobbles, in its own brooder, so it doesn’t get damaged further. It has no competition for food now and it eats well, but it’s still soooo slow growing!
And of course. It’s a drake
anyone else experience anything similar before?
