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Author Topic: Duck hatching and growing cycles  (Read 2436 times)

Pundyburn Lynn

  • Joined May 2012
Duck hatching and growing cycles
« on: March 02, 2015, 03:01:02 pm »
Hello duck people!


I'm still trying to put together some facts and figures for my master plan!


We've kept chickens, turkeys and sheep, but not ducks.  We're hoping to acquire a number of ducks, probably either Silver Appleyards or Blue Swedish, predominantly for meat.  We'd be hoping to hatch our own stock after our initial purchase of adult birds. We just wondered how many hatches/batches of ducklings a duck will produce in a year? (in Scotland!). How many cycles are natural?  And can additional eggs be incubated electronically?


Thank you!!!

Clansman

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Ayrshire
Re: Duck hatching and growing cycles
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2015, 03:27:31 pm »
How many are you looking at rearing?

Mine would sit on eggs year round if I let them, I had a Muscovy rear three broods last year

The most efficient way is to hatch all your eggs in an incubator.

If the duck sits on eggs she'll stop laying until the ducklings are weaned before she even thinks about laying eggs again., so you'd lose a good few months egg production by having mum hatch her own.

All depends what scale you're doing it on, if you want couple of dozen ducklings then two ducks will hatch them out fine, if you're looking for a couple of hundred then a few ducks would lay enough eggs for you to hatch that amount  in an incubator.

It is lovely watching them grow up with their mum though

I like watching the transformation from the little ducklings constantly running after mum to the point when mum starts to run after them.

Then one day you see one of the boys move away from the rest of them and see the realisation dawning on him that he doesn't actually have to stay beside the rest of them all the time  :thumbsup:
« Last Edit: March 02, 2015, 03:33:29 pm by Clansman »

Pundyburn Lynn

  • Joined May 2012
Re: Duck hatching and growing cycles
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2015, 04:03:14 pm »
Thanks Clansman,


I don't mind if the ducks stop laying while they're broody.  And I don't suppose I know enough yet to settle on one breed in particular. Would they each produce three broods per year??  Roughly how many ducklings in a brood?  At this point I'd be guessing I'll need five ducks and a drake??


There seem to be three favourites for meat.  The Muscovy sounds fabulous, but takes ages to mature.  However, it's silent.  The Silver Appleyard is supposed to be fast growing, taking only 9 weeks until meat-sized but noisy and moody.  Some say their eggs are blue, others say they're white?  And the Blue Swedish is meant to be fabulous I terms of meat, but slow to mature and loud!

Clansman

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Ayrshire
Re: Duck hatching and growing cycles
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2015, 04:11:44 pm »
I usually end up with 6-12 per brood with the Muscovys, I only keep these primarily because they are quiet and I have neighbours or I'd probably have something else.

If you plan it right you can stick some eggs in the incubator to coincide with her hatching her own eggs, then if she only hatches a few you can sneak in some more at night ;)

One of the three broods my muscovy hatched last year were actually turkeys  :innocent:

try a trio of different breeds to start with, the Aylesbury and Pekin are good meat birds too, (if you get a good strain) there are plenty to choose from :)
« Last Edit: March 02, 2015, 04:15:29 pm by Clansman »

clydesdaleclopper

  • Joined Aug 2009
  • Aberdeenshire
Re: Duck hatching and growing cycles
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2015, 06:19:07 pm »
My Blue Swedish certainly aren't loud. They're lovely  :love:


I tend to incubate mine otherwise I invariably end up with a couple going broody at the same time, nicking each others eggs etc.


The funniest sight was last year when I found a Guinea Fowl egg and stuck it in the incubator with the duck eggs. they all got on great but when the ducks took to the water the guinea fowl would dance around the edge shouting at them  ;D
Our holding has Anglo Nubian and British Toggenburg goats, Gotland sheep, Franconian Geese, Blue Swedish ducks, a whole load of mongrel hens and two semi-feral children.

HesterF

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Kent
  • HesterF
Re: Duck hatching and growing cycles
« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2015, 12:14:42 am »
I've got Silver Appleyards. They're certainly fast growing, I don't think they're particularly noisy (certainly nothing compared to geese or cockerels) and no idea what makes them moody. Mine aren't super friendly but that's because I don't spend any time trying to tame them! Their eggs are brilliant - big and white (biggest weigh in at over 100g but normally 80-95g) and they lay fantastically well - daily for quite a lot of the year. I've found the fertility doesn't really kick in until March - and I'm in the far South East of England so it might well be later in Scotland - and I think your chances of using them as broodies are slim to none. They've been very specifically bred to be both meat and egg birds which, much like hybrid hens, makes them far, far less likely to go broody. I've not had a broody duck yet and I've had them for nearly three years. No idea when the fertility tails off because I'm generally bored of hatching by June but I'd guess August time - they tend to moult then. Meantime you could hatch loads of them in an incubator if you have a big enough incubator and just bung in as many as you can although they can be quite challenging to hatch (I struggled last year). Just think through how you'll brood them as well - they grow really fast (as you've noted) but they still don't feather up until about 6 weeks so at that point you've got a virtually full sized duck that's not able to go out unless the weather is very warm and dry and they are very, very messy inside (need cleaning out daily).

 

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