We had ducklings hatch today! One very exhausted - advice appreciated! :)

[Miss Lydia]

Nothing yet! Although the mummas not too keen to get up so I can have a look

Hopefully by tonight or tomorrow.... Arrrggg the waiting game is hard!

Other little baby is having the time of it's life though, it's a very happy little duck

Shew thanks for updating, when you didn't come back right away I thought something awful had happened, glad to hear baby is doing good and hopefully this will be over soon. You don't want any eggs exploding in the nest and throwing nasty bacteria all over so I'd start candling soon if you want do one egg at a time handling very carefully so as not to be wearing anything if it does explode. Did you put food and water close by for the duckling?

 

[Jen1979]

Hehe whoops sorry Miss Lydia

The duckling has a little shallow food and water bowl close by. I've seen the little cutie wandering over to it and having something to eat and drink quite a few times today

I haven't been able to catch the girls off the nest today so that I can candle some more, and I'm so worried that if I try to move them and one is actually hatching they might trample them..! I'm still hoping maybe tomorrow will be the day for another hatching! Fingers crossed! I'll let you know!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hehe whoops sorry Miss Lydia

The duckling has a little shallow food and water bowl close by. I've seen the little cutie wandering over to it and having something to eat and drink quite a few times today

I haven't been able to catch the girls off the nest today so that I can candle some more, and I'm so worried that if I try to move them and one is actually hatching they might trample them..! I'm still hoping maybe tomorrow will be the day for another hatching! Fingers crossed! I'll let you know!

 

[Orca5094]

 

[Lyss]

How exciting! I don't have any experience with hatching with ducks but I have incubated quite a few of them. I do wish my duck would sit on her own eggs it would save me a lot of heart ache when I sell the ducklings and also a lot of worry of being responsible for them. I'm sure ducks are a lot better at raising ducks then people are .
Fingers crossed you get some more babies.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Waiting for updates!

 

[Jen1979]

Still nothing yet! I'm getting sooooo impatient!!

hehe

Both girls are still sitting tight though. The egg I felt rocking around and tapping was on Saturday afternoon (it's Monday morning here now). Should it take that long before it hatches? They can rock around a few days before cant they? I'm a bit worried because I read that the mummas get up and have a swim which wets down the eggs and keeps the humidity right - but since the first ducklings hatched, neither of them has got up for a swim...

Insert worried ducky grandma face here!

I know what you mean @Lyss I have to say I'm actually quite glad I'm not incubating the first hatch I've ever done and the girls are doing it themselves. At least this way I haven't been able to be tempted to intervene and I don't have to panic that a not so good result was because of my temp or humidity settings etc. Since our girls seem rather keen to do it themselves (at least this time) we'll leave the incubating to if they abandon a nest or something at some stage!

 

[Jen1979]

In the meantime, here's a closer pic of our little cutie who is doing very well

 

[Lyss]

Very nice, what breed?

 

[Jen1979]

Very nice, what breed?

Our ducks are Indian Runner x Pekin @Lyss I had heard Indian Runners were not so good at hatching chicks or even going broody - but all 3 of our girls apparently didn't get that memo!