[nettelein]

Hi there everyone
I have just stumbled across this webside and thought to myself, why not register and share.
OK, a little bit about me. My year hasn't started that well, sadly I lost my 15 year old ducks to a fox a few weeks ago. 15 years is a long time and they had a great life, just so sad they are gone now and I miss them madly!
With spring on the way and hours in the garden I have decided to start again. I just can't bare the empty garden, without the ducks by my side. As with my last lot, I've decided to hatch the eggs in an incubator. I'm a bit nervous, it's been a long time and the last time I wasn't on my own. So, the incubator is ordered and on it's way and once received and set up and tested, I will get the eggs. I spent the last few weeks reading everything available on the net to prepare myself. However, you always stumble across differences of opinions, so I hope that some of you can give me some occasional advice.
So, here's my first question:
How many eggs should I get? I would like a minimum of 4 ducks, but when do you ever get a 100% success in hatching eggs.
Also, I've read that eggs produced early in the year you are more likely to produce ducks, while later in the year there is more of a possibility that you hatch drakes. Is this true?
So here we are for now. I don't want to bombard you with too many questions all at once.

[plumseverywhere]

Hello from sunny (ish) WOrcestershire 

sorry can't help with the duck questions as I've never kept any but I just wanted to welcome you to TAS    I' m sure someone with duck experience will be along or you might want to pop a question in the poultry section too?

Lisa 

[nettelein]

Thanks for making me feel so welcome lisa. That's a great start. I will check out the poultry section later and have a go

[Brijjy]

  Hello from cloudy Powys.

[nettelein]

And HELLO! back to you. Gosh! This site is sooo friendly!

[Mammyshaz]

Hello nettelein

Don't know anything about ducks either , dogs,cats and little furries yes, anything else I haven,t a clue.
Bought hens last summer so still learning about them.

  happy chatting, from a cold but dry Durham

[FiB]

Hiya Nettelein from Bala North Wales, good luck with the hatching - not tried that yet so be looking forward to hearing about your experiences 

[nettelein]

I will keep you all up to date. Chickens are lovely too. Got lots in the neighbourhood and every now and then had a few visits from neighbouring gardens. My next door neighbour has all sorts and it's great to meet up at 7 in the morning for a quick chat with my neighbour over the hedge while feeding the lot. She was sooo upset when she heard about my ducks, that she came over with a dozen eggs and a sympathy card, bless her. She's just as excited as me about what's to come. It's always been me and my ducks. And I so hope to have a young flock to keep me company in the garden this summer.

[chrismahon]

Welcome to the forum from Staffordshire Nettelein. Don't know much about ducks I'm afraid other than female Mallards are VERY noisy -we hand reared one about 6 years ago, before we had chickens. Lucky we called her. Used to follow us everywhere, yes everywhere, until she realised she was a duck and not a human.

[nettelein]

Hi there. Yes, duck or human, I often wondered with my last lot. I think they thought I was a duck.

[Lesley Silvester]

   Hi and welcome from sunny Shropshire.  I once had a pair of call ducks called Sam 'n Ella.  Then I had Muscovies.  Lost them all to the mink.  Then was given a pair of Muscovies who hatched out about nine ducklings.  Sadly lost them all after a few days, probably due to the fact that Donald was not only Dolly's OH, he was also her father, grandfather and probably great-grandfather.

Not much help I know but someone will have the answers.

[nettelein]

Hi and greetings from Wiltshire. Thanks for your reply, whether helpful or not it's great to hear from you. I was thinking about the "interbreeding" too and thought, if I buy of different sellers, that'll help. Got the incubator now and started searching for eggs. As long as they are heavy breeds, I'm happy, not even important to me whether they are pure breed to tell you the truth. Still not sure how many eggs to get.

[Spinpup]

Hi Nettelein

So sad, losing your ducks. Good luck with the new ones.

Michelle

[nettelein]

Thanks Michelle
Yea, I was very fond of them and miss them madly. Just hope the incubation goes well and the garden is soon full of quacks again. amazing how attached you can get to these lovely creatures, no wonder though, is there anything friendlier? keep you updated

[MAK]

Good luck with the eggs.
Our surviving Muscovey female ( a fox got the others) has laid lots of eggs and with the warmer weather we have now let her keep her eggs. She has 8 eggs so far. Last year she sat on 14 and we had 8 hatch. Very tasty and the males were > 3 kg by September.
Try Muscovey - though they are not that pretty and just hiss rather t :&>han quack

Hope all goes well.  Martin ( Limousin,France)