My family comes to our farm the day before Easter to celebrate with us. On this particular Saturday, I asked my nephew if he could climb under our dock to collect the duck eggs laid there. You see we had three ducks, a 7 year old Black East Indie male, a 6 year old Black East Indie female and a 4 year old Pencil Runner female (brown and white). The two females would lay eggs under the dock and hatch them themselves. When we would see ducklings in the pond, it was "all hands on deck"! My husband and I, and any of our kids who were there at the time, would get out our kayaks to catch the ducklings. If we didn't, the fish would eat them. And, of course, the ducklings were imprinted on mom so they were terrified of us.
So my nephew collected 31 eggs and I put them in my incubator. 25 were fertile and, as of yesterday, I hatched 22. These babies are imprinting on me. The Black East Indie ducklings have all black bills, while the Black East Indie x Pencil Runner are also black but have black and yellow bills. I'm extremely grateful that we collected the eggs because 4 days ago, a predator got both of my Black East Indie ducks.
Hatch F was complete today with three goslings hatched. All needed help getting out of their shell. I believe it is because I used my forced air incubator to not only incubate, but to hatch. The air seems to dry the membrane before they hatch, even with 68% humidity. Usually, I move the externally pipped eggs to my still air incubator....but it was being used by my ducklings.
The first two goslings were, once again, full siblings. However, when they finally escaped the egg shell, they both had curled feet. The gray one still had not opened up it's feet to walk after a few hours so I "sandwiched" both feet between a stiff cardboard and vet wrap. Right now when it walks, it looks like it is walking on high heels. Hopefully, by tomorrow it will be better. The second gosling, a gray saddleback, started using it's feet correctly after a few hours. The last gosling, a gray saddleback from a different pen, has spraddle leg and I wrapped them together so that tomorrow it should be fine. This is the first hatch this season where I had to intervene and I do believe it is the incubator.
Next week is my last hatch of the season and I have 9 eggs. I will definitely be putting all the externally pipped eggs into my "hatching" still air incubator.
5/14/17 Took off the foot "sandwich" and the spraddle fix and everything looks great!
So my nephew collected 31 eggs and I put them in my incubator. 25 were fertile and, as of yesterday, I hatched 22. These babies are imprinting on me. The Black East Indie ducklings have all black bills, while the Black East Indie x Pencil Runner are also black but have black and yellow bills. I'm extremely grateful that we collected the eggs because 4 days ago, a predator got both of my Black East Indie ducks.
Hatch F was complete today with three goslings hatched. All needed help getting out of their shell. I believe it is because I used my forced air incubator to not only incubate, but to hatch. The air seems to dry the membrane before they hatch, even with 68% humidity. Usually, I move the externally pipped eggs to my still air incubator....but it was being used by my ducklings.
The first two goslings were, once again, full siblings. However, when they finally escaped the egg shell, they both had curled feet. The gray one still had not opened up it's feet to walk after a few hours so I "sandwiched" both feet between a stiff cardboard and vet wrap. Right now when it walks, it looks like it is walking on high heels. Hopefully, by tomorrow it will be better. The second gosling, a gray saddleback, started using it's feet correctly after a few hours. The last gosling, a gray saddleback from a different pen, has spraddle leg and I wrapped them together so that tomorrow it should be fine. This is the first hatch this season where I had to intervene and I do believe it is the incubator.
Next week is my last hatch of the season and I have 9 eggs. I will definitely be putting all the externally pipped eggs into my "hatching" still air incubator.
5/14/17 Took off the foot "sandwich" and the spraddle fix and everything looks great!