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

[Lacrystol]

Thanks Miss Lydia, definitely a lesson learned for us, shame it had to be such a hard one

This afternoon we managed to pick up a couple of eggs I was going to candle to see if anything is going on...suddenly one started rocking around pretty hard in my hand and I could hear and feel it tapping...I'm also pretty sure I heard a few peeps! So hopefully another one is on the way as a little sibling

Come on little guy, ESCAPE..

 

[Lacrystol]

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!

I think I would try and check out the eggs, if they haven't gone swimming, I think I would grab a spray bottle, SPray all the eggs and put her back on the nest. Two days and you haven't seen the second little bugger yet. I would be checking to see whats up.

 

[Lyss]

Any news this morning? Your in Australia as well aren't you?

 

[Miss Lydia]

 

[Jen1979]

Thanks @Lacrystol! I've just checked and she has been swimming now, her undercarriage is all wet and the eggs are dampened down. I'm not sure what's happening with the eggs she has left though :/ I moved her to check (I got bitten a lot lol) and I can't see any of them moving and no external pips that I could see Does this mean the one who was moving about has died? I so hope she still hatches at least one, she's done such a good job of sitting all this time!

The other girl Coco is still sitting on a fair few eggs too, I haven't moved her yet to check on those ones. Waiting for an opportunity where her duckling isn't right under her wing just incase she steps on her!

 

[Jen1979]

Any news this morning? Your in Australia as well aren't you?

Sure am, I'm in Perth Western Australia

 

[Lacrystol]

Thanks @Lacrystol ! I've just checked and she has been swimming now, her undercarriage is all wet and the eggs are dampened down. I'm not sure what's happening with the eggs she has left though

I moved her to check (I got bitten a lot lol) and I can't see any of them moving and no external pips that I could see

Does this mean the one who was moving about has died?

I so hope she still hatches at least one, she's done such a good job of sitting all this time!

The other girl Coco is still sitting on a fair few eggs too, I haven't moved her yet to check on those ones. Waiting for an opportunity where her duckling isn't right under her wing just incase she steps on her!

OH GOOD, if she's swimming then they aren't ready yet. Give them another three more days, lets see what pops out then, when it gets close to hatching time and I don't know how these mothers know it, but that's when they take there swim. That other one just must have been very impatient or she sat on him then collected more eggs.. LOL Usually they collect all there eggs before sitting but perhaps she didn't want to wait to collect them all. LOL

 

[Lyss]

Jen your a long way from me then. How's the duckling going? They get big very quickly.

 

[Jen1979]

OH GOOD, if she's swimming then they aren't ready yet.  Give them another three more days, lets see what pops out then, when it gets close to hatching time and I don't know how these mothers know it, but that's when they take there swim.  That other one just must have been very impatient or she sat on him then collected more eggs..  LOL Usually they collect all there eggs before sitting but perhaps she didn't want to wait to collect them all.  LOL

Oh yay! That's such good news There are definitely eggs at different stages in there. Because all 3 girls started sitting about 10 days apart, then after a while I realised when one would get up for a swim another would steal half her eggs, then when she would get up, half of those eggs would get moved, so they basically ended up with a heap of different eggs in each nest!

I think one of the girls was just mimicking the others a bit...lots of the eggs weren't fertilized and the mummas have removed them along the way (including some we candled after 3 weeks and saw there was nothing in them).

 

[Jen1979]

Jen your a long way from me then. How's the duckling going? They get big very quickly.

It's going beautifully Lyss We had 43 degrees Celsius here yesterday and I got worried about the little one, but it just splashed around in a shallow paint tray of water, while I supervised, and had the time of it's life