# 80 duck eggs due to hatch WE HAVE DUCKLINGS



## Royd Wood (Apr 22, 2011)

Incubator is busy this time of year and 80 muscovey duck eggs due to hatch Easter Saturday (takes 35 days for these guys) so if all goes well will post some pics. Ringneck Pheasants will be next in as the breeding stock have just started laying.


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## ksalvagno (Apr 22, 2011)

Wow, that is a LOT of ducks! I hope they hatch well for you.


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## Emmetts Dairy (Apr 22, 2011)

Good luck!!   That is alot of ducks!!!


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## Dreaming Of Goats (Apr 22, 2011)

Good luck! Do you sell them to people for easter?


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## Royd Wood (Apr 22, 2011)

Dreaming Of Goats said:
			
		

> Good luck! Do you sell them to people for easter?


Along with grassfed beef, lamb and pork we sell free range duck eggs in the farm store


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## Royd Wood (Apr 24, 2011)

Not sure whats going on but I have a grand total of zero ducklings 
Hope some hatch in the next 24 hours as I have checked the date and its 35 days + now


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## helmstead (Apr 24, 2011)

:/

I never had good luck hatching duck eggs...would maybe get 2 or 3 to hatch...and yet can hatch 100% of the chicken eggs...I think there's a trick we never learned.


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## Dreaming Of Goats (Apr 24, 2011)

Is there enough humidity? That's critical for duck eggs to hatch!


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## scrambledmess (Apr 24, 2011)

I hope you have some luck today!


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## Royd Wood (Apr 24, 2011)

helmstead said:
			
		

> :/
> 
> I never had good luck hatching duck eggs...would maybe get 2 or 3 to hatch...and yet can hatch 100% of the chicken eggs...I think there's a trick we never learned.


Same here - Ive had great results with chickens and pheasants but first time for ducks
Eggs were candled so no probs there and humidity good


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## elevan (Apr 24, 2011)

I have yet to incubate ANY eggs...but I have a friend who does.

She's lucky if she gets 1 in 20 duck eggs to hatch...doesn't seem to be very good odds.


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## adoptedbyachicken (Apr 24, 2011)

I thought Muscovies went longer than most, is it 39 days?  Sorry, I forget, and I did get them to hatch out once, but not a great hatch rate.


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## Royd Wood (Apr 25, 2011)

adoptedbyachicken said:
			
		

> I thought Muscovies went longer than most, is it 39 days?  Sorry, I forget, and I did get them to hatch out once, but not a great hatch rate.


It says everywhere I've checked 35 days but its now day 37 so it looks like a massive failiure on my part. Serves me right as I didnt do any reserch and from what I'm reading they are tricky to hatch in a incubator. Looks like I will just buy in day olds and stick to hatching chicks and pheasants.


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## Mo's palominos (Apr 25, 2011)

I've always and fairly good luck with the duck eggs and not so good luck with the goose eggs! 
I was always told to give them 3 days after the hatch date , because if the temp was just a little low it takes longer and if it's a little too high they will hatch early.
 Also if you try another hatch , give them a spritz of water once a day when you roll them ( after day 7 and stop 7 days before they hatch). I guess in nature the mama duck get off the nest once a day takes a swim eats and drinks and goes back to the nest. Spritzing them is suppose to help mimic this. It has worked well for me. FWIW I hatch pekins and maybe they are easier to hatch than muscovies?


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## PattySh (Apr 26, 2011)

A late hatch can be too low temps or not enough moisture to hatch. I pretty much failed my first hatch this year with turkeys/chicks. Only have 4 living turkeys and one chick. Had a full incubator.  Almost all of the birds grew full size and died in the eggs. Also had no way to measure humidity. Ordered a digital thermometor/hygrometor on ebay and have another bator due to hatch early May. Maybe I'll have better luck. Hang in there they may be late, Stick some wet sponges in the incubator to get the moisture up.


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## PattySh (Apr 26, 2011)

LOL reverse of what is happening to you. I put little white eggs in the incubator thinking they were guinea eggs. Well come to find out the guinea is now laying itty bitty cream eggs and it is the one oddball brown leghorn chicken's eggs that I put into the bator. I just opened the bator to turn the eggs and heard a peep, sure enough one egg is pipped and it's a brown leghorn/buff orpington mutt chicken lol. Of course the accidental mutt chickens will survive. Too funny. I stuck milk filters under the eggs to catch the yuck as the rest of the eggs are not supposed to hatch for a week! Now where to put them I haven't taken the first hatch out of the brooder yet and taken them to the barn. Guess I'll get on that.

edited for spelling error


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## Mo's palominos (Apr 26, 2011)

PattySh said:
			
		

> I put little white eggs in the incubator thinking they were guinea eggs. Well come to find out the guinea is now laying itty bitty cream eggs and it is the one oddball brown leghorn chicken's eggs that I put into the bator. I just opened the bator to turn the eggs and heard a peep, sure enough one egg is pipped and it's a brown leghorn/buff orpington mutt chicken lol.


. 
That is too funny!! I did the EXACT same thing. I found a perfectly round egg and assumed it was a guinea egg. To my surprise, white leghorn mutt. I have 3 "real" guinea eggs in there now that I figured out what they look like !
The sponge thing is a great idea ! I'll have to try it next hatch.


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## Royd Wood (Apr 26, 2011)

Mo's palominos said:
			
		

> PattySh said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


There was 81 duck eggs in the incubator or so I thought and on 21 days could hear a loud Tweet Tweet - turns out our old Minorca hen was laying in the duck nests.
Shes down to 2 large white eggs a week 

So the final score is no ducks and one lonely chick who doesent know its father


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## Royd Wood (Apr 27, 2011)

Well I'll be damned

We have ducklings hatching out as I write this


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## helmstead (Apr 27, 2011)




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## ksj0225 (Apr 27, 2011)

Waiting for the update!!!


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## Dreaming Of Goats (Apr 27, 2011)

Yay!


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## Royd Wood (Apr 28, 2011)

The first incubator with 40 duck eggs and 1 chicken egg (thought it was a duck egg) was a disaster except for the chicken - think I got the humidity wrong as the ducks died before being fully formed. The second incubator was started a couple of days later and so far we have only 4 ducklings out of 41 but lots of cherping going on so hopefully a few more will hatch today - should I sprey the eggs to help or leave them alone ????


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## PattySh (Apr 29, 2011)

I have 4 Mutt chicks that I thougth were guineas! Not sure the other 2 "quinea lol" eggs will hatch. So far the incubator isn't too dirty which I was worried about as the rest aren't scheduled to hatch until next Tues. Not sure about spritzing the duck eggs at this point. I know it's important to keep the humidity up not sure exactly what it should be, just learning here too. I have a mixed incubator going, 6 duck eggs, Narragansett turkey, Buff Orpington and  BuffOrp/Americana chicks due next Tues.Everyone says chicks are easier to hatch than ducks. Had a terrible hatch rate on my first incubator, this is second try.


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## PattySh (May 3, 2011)

Did you end out with more ducklings? Our 4  mutt chickens have company today as the rest of the incubator is hatching. Added 8 Buff Orp chickens, 3 Narragansett turkeys and 2 MagpieX ducks so far, hopefully we are only 1/2 done more eggs to go.The ducks were hard to come out of their shells, after being pipped for well over 24 hrs I helped break the shell a bit.


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## Royd Wood (May 3, 2011)

Ended up with storm from the US beating us which took out the power just as the first ducks were hatching

Ended up with 15 yellow and 1 black muscovey ducklings - still a disaster - must try harder next time


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## Dreaming Of Goats (May 4, 2011)

The black one is probably named since he's so different, huh? LOL


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## sheepboy1 (Jun 25, 2011)

I had duck eggs under my silkie she just hatched them today 4 mallard ducks


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## rockdoveranch (Jun 26, 2011)

Just read through this thread for the first time.  We have never hatched any kind of egg before, though I have raised newborn homing pigeons and ringnecks by hand.  Even with the bad with the good it sounds like something interesting to do.


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## manybirds (Jul 18, 2011)

they nead 80% humidity and I spritze mine with water daily. You also nead a forced are incubator to get a good hatch rate


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