The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: robbiegrant on September 19, 2012, 02:09:46 am
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Greetings.
The second stage of developing our IR flock starts here.
Incubator sterile and drying over night.
17 beautiful, large, 75-80 grams IR eggs ( White, some crested ) sitting in front of me :)
:wave:WELCOME TO SCOTLAND GUYS N GIRLS! :-*
( Post Office burst one in transit ) :'( The buggers... :rant:
They have been sitting on a north facing window sill at 14-15degrees after their journey.
Gonna give them a clean and a candle now and them rest them point down to slowly come up to room temp.
will set tomorrow morning.
Robbie.
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Nightmare in incubator land.
Seems at some point the egg turning arm on our brinsea polyhatch has snapped! All fixed now but haven't a clue how long its been burst!. ( It was working fine when I set it up ) We did have a wee power cut on thursday, maybe it snapped then whilst moving the incy? dunno :(
Looks like 10 of the 17 eggs are sterile, all i can see is clear egg and yolk inside. :-\ but that is over 10 days, something would have shown by now I would imagine.
7 of the eggs have life! :fc: Blood vessels, light sensitive embrios when candled. I am worried the eggs not being turned will have caused them a problem with developement. Anyone got any idea's. I suppose we will have to suck it n see, don't have a choice really?
We will just have to see....
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This is why I prefer to use a manual incubator. Hope they hatch safely :fc:
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We are gutted. Anybody got any experience of this? Will they DIS? We are so worried about the little souls. The eggs where set on the 19th sept, the incubator was tested and working fine at the time...
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Robbie, this only shows how fragile the oncoming lives are...I think it happens to each and every duck mum and then they chuck the eggs out of the nest! :bouquet: :&>
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The machine has been turning them correctly now the arm has been repaired ( as soon as i discovered we had a problem ). There are signs of movement inside of some so we are not going to throw them out just yet. Even though there is evidence of fertilisation in 7 there is a good chance that they will not all do the term( one of them looks a bit strange inside when I candle ).
Anyway Im wondering if anyone has had experience in this instance and whether it was a total loss or some chicks/ducklings hatched after not being turned for a couple of days?
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The strong ones may survive weaker ones now have less chance - If you think of the hen she doesnt have the brains to say i will turn c3 half a turn at 2.30 - its random - I have incubated and forgotten to put the turner on after checking then realised a day or 2 later whoops!
But most did hatch, specific embryo stages could be more critical but i would just keep going and see what happens
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:wave: Big Light.
Put a big smile on my face to read this. Many thanks for your post. Last night after a careful candling I now know that 6 of 7 are still alive and wriggling about ( light sensitive ). So now there are six. I doubt the turner was off for more than 2 days so hopefully :fc: looks like we may still on be track for a hatching on 17th.
This batch has the crested gene! :) It would be lovely to add crested runners to our wee flock :D
Thanks again.
Robbie
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No probs good luck
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Greeting people.
We are in lock down.
6 eggs wiggling about on the hatcher tray.
Hatching date 17th Oct
Interestingly two of the eggs are longer and more equal at each end ( as opposed to egg shaped )
Wonder if that means anything?!
Anyway. Sponges installed, humidity at 70. Temp has been dropped half a degree to 37.0
Fingers crossed :fc:
As the mummy woodlouse said to the baby woodlouse " see you slater " :roflanim:
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:fc: :fc: :fc: :fc:
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Interestingly two of the eggs are longer and more equal at each end ( as opposed to egg shaped )
Wonder if that means anything?!
well, old wives' tale says that the longer ones are boys and the round ones are girls :roflanim: My personal experience says it's true as I secretly choose them accordingly but it probably is more likely that certain ducks lay differently shaped eggs, a personality trait :&>
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Interestingly two of the eggs are longer and more equal at each end ( as opposed to egg shaped )
Wonder if that means anything?!
Certain ducks lay differently shaped eggs, a personality trait :&>
Yes...Peering into my childhood I remember recognising eggs from particular chickens ( we had a lot of chooks at the time ) and.... Ducks wont be much different. I would add that different runner ducks, ( from different flocks ) lay different eggs. Vasily came from Somerset, Kroshka and Bigyin from nottinghamshire ( i think ) and these have come from Leicester. Eggs from each clutch where uniform(ish) within themselves. The A's looks similar to each other ( thick calcite white shell, B's Similar to each other ( thinner shells and more blue )... But the C's where HUGE in comparison with the others more transparent white. Some of the C's, 2 in particular, are long and even ended.
We are hoping its the runners crested gene peeking through its DNA at us.... :excited: The more different the runner the more different the egg shape!
Well... soon we shall see. C2 ex pipped at teatime and is rocking around the hatcher like an egg possessed.
Come on dem crested genes! :thumbsup:
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C2 unzipping... Nothing from the rest yet, though "D"uck day is ramorra :fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: :fc:
Come on boys and girls :thumbsup:
Come on dem crested genes.... :fc:
Or hooked bills!!! :excited:
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fingers crossed for the new lives :fc: :fc: :&> :&>
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Hope it is all going well my 11 never fail to make me laugh as they sneak into next doors field and play in the puddles, coming back covered in mud. One of mine is crested, I wondered if it was just having a bad hair day till I read your post.Still don't know which are boys and which are girls but they definately make a different sound there are just so many and they move around so quickly that I lose track I think that I need to get 2 different coloured sprays and try to mark them.
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Greetingz :wave:
"Nice weather for :&> :&> :&> :&> :&> :&> :raining:"
At 9pm yesterday. "Ooty" popped out. Noisy wee creature. Yellow, fluffy AND noisey :thumbsup:
Just checked wed teatime and we have 2 ex-pipped one of which has started unzipping :excited:
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Hope it is all going well my 11 never fail to make me laugh as they sneak into next doors field and play in the puddles, coming back covered in mud. One of mine is crested, I wondered if it was just having a bad hair day till I read your post.Still don't know which are boys and which are girls but they definately make a different sound there are just so many and they move around so quickly that I lose track I think that I need to get 2 different coloured sprays and try to mark them.
Thank you. Our big ones are getting up to all sorts of mischief. ( escaping into next doors garden etc ) All of the big ones are quacking. So we think they are girls! :thumbsup:
We now have three new ducklings. :excited: Ooty, Jemima and Bali. All white ( yellow ) and nice and fluffy. The other three eggs made it almost to the end but must have been too weak to hatch :(
Nice that one of yours has a crest. So comical looking with a wee pom pom. Was there evidence of the crest there to begin with or did it develop in time? We do hope to have one with a crest, no evidence of such so far. maybe its early days?
Best regards
Robbie
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Hi Robbie the one with the crest looked different from about the 2nd day It does look rather strange with its little pom pom with a feather sticking out the side.
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:( we just lost jemima. she did seem very quite and was hardly eating, even sugar water
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so sad, Robbie :bouquet: :&> :&>
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:bouquet: poor jemima. Hope your others are still strong :fc:
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:bouquet: poor jemima. Hope your others are still strong :fc:
Thanks... We think Jemima died from an infection, her eyes looked abnormally big and puffy around the edges, quite different to the other two. ( God only knows from where because we are paying close attention to sterilising and cleaning as always )
Ooty is going for it. not shy, loud and proud and a wee climber, intent on trying to get to the top of your head whenever he/she/it is placed in ones lap. Eating and drinking and pooing no prob. Full of energy
Bali is a bit quieter, although he/she/it goes through the process of pecking im not convinced she/he/it is getting enough. She is not interested in chick crumb, but definately has a go at the smashed up hard boiled egg yolk and gluscose water from time to time. Bali is the first duckling I have met that doesn't put the head back after a drink. This has had me scratching my head. There seems to be much more egg residue on these two from birth, it had caked hard on Bali's neck and side of head, we are slowly wiping it off with a kitchen towel dipped in warm water. I wonder if this is why the wee soul is not putting her/his head back. I wonder if it has been making swallowing difficult.?
In view of this and the fact we lost one last night Bali is on a two hour supplemental feeding cycle ( 0.5cc warm liquid egg yolk. ) They both get a we wipe with warm water at the same time. The residue is slowly shifting.
We have started weighing Bali to determine if she is making headway. 47.0 grams, Dosnt seem much considering the size of the eggs!
She/he does seem to have more energy now, peeping away to Ooty, wagging her tail and preening after each wipe down. So sofar we are winning :fc:
I haven't witnessed Bali pooing yet... I am keeping my eyes open for this.
We have been beating ourselves up over the weak state of Bali and Jemima and have come to several conclusions.
1. Don't buy your eggs from ebay through the post. There are too many variables. You dont really know the health or nutrition of the parent stock, ( many of these eggs where infertile ) and better not putting the eggs at the mercy of our postal service. ( These eggs arrived shook up, One broken others with air pockets detached )
2. Try not raise your ducklings out of season.
3. Check check and check again your incubator, or better, use the help of a sitting Mum and have the incy standing by just incase.
4. Do buy from recommended breeders ( Indian Runner Duck Association have a list ), Collect the eggs, ( or better still young ducklings ) in the car... Although there are logistic problems with keeping them warm, that should be a huge issue.
Needless to say if we add anymore to our flock we will be buying from a IRDA recommended breeder and going to get them ourselves. and it wont be till late spring. Probably just after the mallards start hatching on the riverbank.
Hindsight is a wonderfull thing....
Our big girls ( :thumbsup: GIRLS!!! :thumbsup: ) are wonderful, "Vasilly" ( Yes, its a mans name but it has stuck ) is a pure bred white, "Kroshka" and "Bigyin" ( Runner Trouts ) are loving life, they are very cozy in their wendy house, They love taking a bath in the paddling pool ( ARGOS £3.99 ) and even come for walks with us away up the trail and into the fields.
We love them and wouldn't swap them for the world! :trophy:
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Sounds like they have a great life at your place :thumbsup:
:fc: bali and pals do well. Is it worth supplementing them for a few days to ensure a good supply of food and energy ( especially if an infection of sorts is doing the rounds. )
No experience of fowl rearing but certainly would do this with other young, so I do apologise if this is not feasible.
Wish you the best of luck with the rest of rearing. Keep us informed please :sunshine:
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:wave:
Two and a half hours later Bali is now happily putting her head back when drinking and eating "smashed hard boiled egg"
She/he/Itself has just weighed in at 50grams
Unless my previous measurement was incorrect ( they dance about on the scales ) she has gained 3 grams in a bit less than 3 hours... a gram and hour sounds like loads tho! gonna weigh again in a couple o hours and see.. maybe a made and error.
She means happier. no pipette feed this time. just put a selection of feeds in plus glucose milk and leaving Bali be
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The weight gain could have been due to supplementing when baby is suffering dehydration if baby hasn't been feeding correctly. I would think about continuing to supplement if possible :sunshine:
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The weight gain could have been due to supplementing when baby is suffering dehydration if baby hasn't been feeding correctly.
That's a good point. Thanks. I'm pretty sure i got the measurements and times correct so that would explain 1gram ph.
In the last hour Bali has changed dramatically. We recently observed her ( :fc: ) tucking into the duckling crumb and drinking normally like there has never been a problem... . 50.4 grams at 00:30. She is tucking into liquid egg yolk, milk with glucose and smashed boiled egg too now.
Just going to watch a BBC4 science program i recorded this evening on Energy and stuff, so as long as I dont fall down a black hole i will check her weight before bed ( and get her weight correct again! ;D )
We have agonised over the stress created through force feeding a weak duckling with a pipette. In this case It has been nessesary. She ( :fc:) is drinking normally now, head back and everything. her last
it didn't help that we put them together because we could not tell exactly who was eating what and pooing what... Separating them after they had got used to each other ( even with a sheet of glass was veto'ed by my wife on the basis that the stronger chick stimulated the weaker one and they screamed for each other when serarated )
Its maybe 6 hours since she was fed with pipette. I will give her 0.5ml egg yolk before bed.
A visibly happier duckling that 24hours ago! :fc:
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How's she doing this morning?
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:wave: Greetings... Much better thanks.
She is doing much better. She is sitting on a towel on my lap as I type :eyelashes:. She just weighed in at 55.5 grams! So she has gained 4 grams since 02:00am :) She is standing steadier, and peeping away contentedly, eating and drinking normally ( even tucking into the duckling crumb! )
This encrusted egg residue is proving difficult to remove but its coming off slowly with gentle application of kitchen towel and cotton bud. At least the little darlings are not so stressed about their cleaning sessions as before. I do think the hard encrusted residue around Balis neck contributing to Balis eating problems. There is no sign of infection like with Jemima, poor wee soul.
Keeping a close eye but looks like crisis over :fc:
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Good news :thumbsup: keep up the good work :&> :&>
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Glad to hear the ducklings are doing well now ;D well done :thumbsup:
Unless you actively need to remove the egg residue, ie as you said, it was stopping her moving her head properly, then I would leave it, as the handling will be stressful, however gentle you are. It will be got rid of naturally when she sheds her down to grow feathers.
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Great they are doing well now - expecting pictures in the near future :excited: we must come and visit before they grow much more , it happens so quickly! :&>
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Unless you actively need to remove the egg residue, ie as you said, it was stopping her moving her head properly, then I would leave it, as the handling will be stressful, however gentle you are. It will be got rid of naturally when she sheds her down to grow feathers.
Yes, I agree. And i hate force feeding her because of the stress.
Ooty is almost clean, Bali still has it on the sides of her head but it is away from her throat now.
Not sure Bali is over this yet. Her weight gain stalled... And then went backyards... This must be evidence of pooing!?!
10pm weighing was 60g...
00:00 was 59.5g
She still seems a little drunken, I thought she might be blind but after carefully observation she is trying to peck the bubbles on the surface on the water accurately.
Weighing her at 02:00 yielded a weight of 61.4grams. ( She pecked at a little food, and had a drink of water but I did intervene with pipette and yolk/milk mix to achieve this )
Overall thats 400 milligrams an hour over a 24 hours period.
In comparison Ooty who is two days older has gained 20 grams in 24 hours!( 81.4g!!! this works out at 833 milligrams per hour! ( eating normally )
Oh well. I'm happy with leaving her for the night. Will check her first thing.
G'nite all :&> :&> :&> :hshoe:
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Great they are doing well now - expecting pictures in the near future :excited: we must come and visit before they grow much more , it happens so quickly! :&>
Welcome welcome, we are in and about mostly all this week ( but give us some warning please. ) Did i PM my number before???
I shall endeavour to get some decent pix today..
Balis weight gain is creeping up but not fast enough.. Only a couple of grams since 02:00 - 11:00 clearly she needs more intervention with a pipette... I hope she gets over this hump quickly :fc:
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Wee update...
Tuesday 00:01am - We have been trying many different substrates to tempt wee Bali into being a gid muncher. Turns out Russian cottage cheese or TVOROG ( ?????? ) WORKS FAMOUSLY!!! :excited:!
( It had been spelling it incorrectly in a previous post :thinking: we used it in our last brood too..)
It is made by curdling boiled milk with lemon juice and then straining through muslim.
Not a balanced diet. But Its a gateway in tae munchin for wee Bali! :fc: :excited:
02:00pm wi a fully belly is weigh in... :fc:
Edit: Balis weight is still going up. she just passed 100grams. She has access to chick crumb and tvorag 24/7. We find she readily excepts tvorag by hand, so we are intermittently offering from the fingertips.
When we show the little ones to our five and half week old ducks, Kroshka takes immediate interest, ( she is cute but somewhere behind that fluffy exterior is the mind of a dinosaur, in her case T-Rex! :roflanim: ) we dont want to give any opportunity for bullying so we are introducing them for 5 mins at a time under strict observation and increasing the frequency daily.
A what age should we be taking them out the brooder ( in the back kitchen ) and into the wendy house with the others? The wendy house has a heat lamp. Bali (101g) 7 days old now. Ooty (136g) 9 days old.
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We have had a bit of a disaster here yesterday one of the ducks got into the trough in next doors field and drowned, gutted, I am trying to keep a close watch on them today as I cant do anything about the fence until tomorrow.
Mine went out into a stable under a heat lamp at about a week old, they didn't stay under the lamp though they prefered cuddling into the goats.
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they didn't stay under the lamp though they prefered cuddling into the goats
:D
I suppose the contact is comforting too. I used to put a cuddly toy into the brooder for just this reason :)
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We have had a bit of a disaster here yesterday one of the ducks got into the trough in next doors field and drowned, gutted, I am trying to keep a close watch on them today as I cant do anything about the fence until tomorrow.
Oh no.... I'm sorry. Poor wee soul :bouquet:
Oor wee ones are bullied whenever we turn our backs. Kroshka and Vasilly.are the culprits... BigYin ( the real boss ) seems to mentor them though... We need to get them out of the brooder soon... sssssssssshhhmellllly!!!. Maybe we shall partition the wendy house for a few days so they can all get used to seeing and hearing each other in the same space.
Wee Bali is fine now. Imprinted so heavily on her older sibling ( by 3 days ) she/he/it practically walks in Ootys foot steps at half a footstep behind. They almost dance together... Photos coming...
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Wee Bali is fine now. Imprinted so heavily on her older sibling ( by 3 days ) she/he/it practically walks in Ootys foot steps at half a footstep behind. They almost dance together... Photos coming...
Glad Bali is doing well. You did a grand job :thumbsup: As for photos...... :excited: come on, show us :excited:
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As for photos...... :excited: come on, show us :excited:
Well...... as ewe put it like that...... :eyelashes:
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:love: what chuncky little chaps/chapess. They are gorgeous and bigger than I expected :love:
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awww, so nice! Well done :&> :&>