Will We Have Ducklings on the Farm?

[3bird]

Mine have stayed put. They even stayed on eggs that someone layed each day for the first 2 weeks. Pretty sure I have internal pips but surprised no hatches yetand it would be a feat to move the girls off now. They rarely leave the nest and if they do, only one leaves and literally gets a few quick bites or drinks and is right back on. I suspect they know it’s close.
If your girls are moving nest so often, is it possible that you catch them in the middle of the move and that’s why you think eggs are gone?

I don't think we are interrupting the move. The move seems to happen at night or very early in the morning, and the former nest is usually pretty much absorbed into the new nest. So strange. We're going to let them out for some supervised free-ranging shortly, and maybe both Martha and Stella will come off the nest so I can check.

What day are you?

 

[Beccazon]

So...you are somewhere around day 19. That leaves as much as 9 days. I really wish we could get a good candle pic in deep darkness!!

Have you dug deep through all the bedding? Is a snake hiding out and snatching eggs quietly? Girls hiding eggs? (Mine do)

 

[3bird]

Nothing on the camera?

Nothing of note.

 

[3bird]

So there is an air sac. Needs to draw down before hatch. Look at your chart and kind of determine what day that egg is on.

Yes. There does appear to be an air sac. Is it a problem that it is on the "bottom" of the egg instead of the top like all the charts I see. I don't see any of the veining, but I'm still not seeing it in total darkness (this picture was taken in a dark corner of the duckhouse). I think the furthest along it could be would be is Day 16 (based on a 26 June laying date). Based on the chart, if it's viable, it sure looks like it's further along than Day 16.

 

[3bird]

Follow Up: Since we only have one egg, and since viability is still questionable, BUT because we are getting close, I want to have some feed on hand in case we have a duckling. We feed our adult ducks Mazuri Waterfowl Maintenance, and we would prefer to feed a duckling Mazuri Water Fowl Starter, but we don't want to buy a 25lbs bag (and pay for shipping) if it's just going to go bad if we have no duckling. What is the best option for ducklings from TSC? Does anyone know anything about the Nature's Best Organic Feeds Duck Crumble?

 

[Beccazon]

45 days? Lock her up she’ll eventually get over her broodiness. That’s way to long to be sitting

Easier said. She disappeared during a dog attack...neighbor across the road. We thought she was gone. 3 days later she showed up. I penned her up with the others as it was roost time. Next morning as always I let them out. She was gone 10 min later. On and off for the next 2 weeks she would show up out of the blue and disappear as quickly for several days until one day I saw where she came from and while I watched her, my son located her nest...nearly. When she headed back, he followed her into a HUGE brush pile as far as he could and darn it all she disappeared exactly to the only spot he could not reach from any direction. We cannot see her nest or reach it. But her behavior is 100% broody. And timing is never right when she is out. She is either too far from us when we notice her or she is out when we are not home. We only see her pop up about once a week and then rarely nearby us. Today I went to grab the big dog kennel and POOF she was gone again in less than 5 minutes

 

[3bird]

12 July Update: Once again, Martha has moved her relatively large nest to the middle of that wall. So interesting! She did not get up this morning at all, so I could not check the egg.

Today's Question: We're going to secure her space in the duckhouse today probably, and we're trying to decide how to do it. We want her and her duckling to have a safe place with food and water. Do we:

1. Close off the whole duckhouse to the rest of the flock?
2. Partition the duckhouse, so the other girls can come and go to half the duckhouse?
3. Build a sort of enclosure inside the duckhouse door so that the other girls can come up and see what's going on but not have access to half of the duckhouse?

We're kind of leaning toward option #3, in part because it it easier than option #2. We simply need to build a frame in the shop, attach hardware cloth and slide it into place inside the duckhouse (affixed temporarily to the wall). We don't really like option #1 because it feels to us that the sooner the flock meets the duckling the better, but that's just a gut feeling and what we know from our experience of integrating a bird into a flock. Option #2 was the plan, but it severely limits the space for Martha and the duckling, meaning that the food and water need to be closer to the nest. Do you have thoughts? Image below is obviously not to scale!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Can you put something along the sides so the duckling can only go up an down not over the sides?