Incubator pictures! Ducks!

I thought I would share these. I think ducks are so cute :P For those who don't know poultry eggs have to been turned 2-3 times a day and they incubate at just about the same temp as BPs depending on the type of poultry.

Anywho, my family has always had incubators running for all sorts of poultry, turkeys, ducks, chickens, geese, pheasants, etc. This is an incubator I've had running with ducks. These pictures are a bit old and I don't have updated pictures, but these babies are all grown up now.

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t.../other/001.jpg
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t.../other/006.jpg
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...ther/003-1.jpg

Closeups of the duckling in the egg. You can see the scratches on the right where it's just the film of the egg that he made. He couldn't get out to save his life and they will eventually die because they run out of air-I'm assuming. So I had to help this guy out. The whole area that is torn away is what i opened up for him. He had tried in that entire area to find a soft spot for two days. He was peeping and I candled him before I started peeling the egg because the veins are attached to the egg everywhere but his little air pocket.
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t.../other/002.jpg
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...ther/004-1.jpg

How adorable! Glad to hear the little baby made it!

How very cute. How often do they have problem getting out of the eggs? He/she (how do you tell the different genders?) is lucky to have you :)

too cute!!:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by akaangela

How very cute. How often do they have problem getting out of the eggs? He/she (how do you tell the different genders?) is lucky to have you :)

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I have no cool if it was male or female :P There is a way you can find out, but it involves their behind and your finger and I'd rather just wait till they are older and just find out by looking at them. Male ducks have curled butt feathers, and have a different quack than female ducks. Males quacks are higher and more like a quack you would think of and a females quack is low and more that a waaack. It's strange but true :D

I've had several that had troubles, but I'd say 80% of the time they get out on their own. The duckling that was already out of the egg I checked on twice a day when I started to hear little peeps and he was out before I even saw him crack the egg. They start making little popping noises you can't quite hear, more like feeling the vibrations, when they are about a week away from hatching. I know all this because my incubator sits on my dinning room table, that we've never used for eating since we moved into our house in September :P

Here are some other ducks I hatched. The runt ended up dying, he was about half the size of the other ducklings when he finally died. They were on medicated duck food, but he had some sort of development issue the food couldn't fix :(

These are Peking ducks, they are a meat duck so they get extremely big! These guys are HUGE now! I need to get some updated pictures of them on the farm. Ignore the cat, that's Enzo :D
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...Enzo/027-1.jpg
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...a/Enzo/033.jpg

Aw!

LoL, The cat is all like mmm hot wings. :D