Huey, Dewey & Lewy

[Corvette Jabo]

The week of Thursday 4-20-06 my kids were home on spring break from school, they are 12 and 14. While they were cutting the grass they stirred up a duck behind a bush in the garden in front of the garage, my kids didn’t think much about it. About an hour later when my son was trimming in front of the garage again, the duck came out of the bushes. When he went to look behind the bush he found the duck’s nest with 3 eggs in the nest. We only saw the duck one more time and then she left the eggs for good. Both of my kids felt terrible and kept an eye out for the mother duck.

On Friday morning I checked the eggs at 5:30 AM before I left for work and still no mama duck. I surfed the web at work on incubating duck eggs, and ran across a web site that had a phone number on their web site (http://www.metzerfarms.com/hatch.htm). Amy from Metzer Farms said that the eggs still had a chance if I could get them in an incubator. I asked her, where the heck am I going to find an incubator on such short notice, she told me to call a feed store. The only thing I could think of was Farm and Fleet and the closest one to me from my work was the one off of Rawson Ave. I called Farm and Fleet and it turns out that they carry them, had a sale on them at the time for $29.99 and had 1 left. I thought it was a sign from God and blasted down there on my lunch break. The incubator that they sell is made of Styrofoam and is in the shape of a clam shell. It has a tray in the bottom and the tray has 2 channels to hold water to create humidity. It also has a wire screen to support the eggs. The heating element is on the top and has a very simple thermostat, the eggs need to stay at 99.5 to 100 degrees. I set up the incubator late Friday afternoon and placed the eggs in the incubator. By this time the eggs had been with out heat for well over 24 hours.

This last Wednesday (4-26-06) we candled the eggs (shine a light from the back of the egg) and all three eggs are alive. We could see the veins running through the yolk and the heart beating on the embryo inside the egg. If I can get a decent picture with my digital camera I will post them.

Jabo

[PonyKiller87]

Thats pretty cool, most people wouldn't take the time or effort to fix something like that even if it was thier fault.:thumbsup

I can't help but think of Friends and how Chandler & Joey had the ducks in thier apartment, lol.

[Silver350]

Congrats, and nice save

[Teufelhunden]

I know your real plan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras) Jabo.

[CruxGNZ]

My sister did that with 5 chicken eggs. Two survived, a hen and a rooster. They stayed around my parents house for a few months in Brookfield. Surprisingly, nobody said anything when the rooster would crow (very badly, I might add. Sound like it was on crack) at the wee hours of the morning. This was at a house, no farm :) . They would nestle up in the window well at night. One night we heard the hen getting eaten by the local fox. The next day my sister took the rooster to a farm. No more chickens.

[WilliamZ]

How are they coming mother Jabo?

[Corvette Jabo]

They are doing great, they are a little over 1 inch long and really active. I will try to post a short clip of them when I candle them, they move allot.
Jabs

[Neal Steffek]

This may be the coolest thread on BCM ever. (next to my free beer thread of corse;) )

[Corvette Jabo]

Here are a few pictures of the incubator and the eggs. I tried to take a short clip of the eggs when I candle them. I am having a difficult time holding the camera still enough with the low light shining through the egg. Its getting hard to see the ducks inside the egg now as they are getting bigger, but you can see allot of shadow movement inside the eggs. Once in a while they press them selves against the side of the egg shell and you can see the eye clearly.

You will notice an “N” on the top of the eggs in the picture. The first web site I went to said that you had to rotate the eggs twice a day and to writ an “X” on one side and an “O” on the other. So to keep things straight in my head I wrote an “N” for night and a “D” for day on the side of the eggs instead. After calling a duck farm they recommended rotating the eggs at least 3 to as many as 7 times each day. So much for the “D” and “N” idea.

Over the weekend I went to Farm & Fleet in Waukesha. I picked up a feeder and watering stand. They also had duckling and chick food, it was around $7.00 for a 50 lb. bag. Kind of funny, they offered 2 types of food. The 1st type is a meat formula (if the ducks are going to end up on the dinner table) and the 2nd type is an egg formula if your raising the ducks for their eggs.

If I am right on the date the Mother laid the three eggs, they should hatch around May 18th.

Jabo



Incubator
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/HPIM0350.jpg

Inside Incubator 1
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/HPIM0351.jpg

Inside Incubator 2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/HPIM0354.jpg

Eggs inside incubator
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/HPIM0353.jpg

[JohnnyT]

That's awesome! Nice work Jabo! :thumbsup

[DirtyMax]

That's awesome.

My sister incubated and hatched like 15 chicks and a few ducks one time. She raised them a while and took them back across the street to the farm where the eggs came from after a few months. Trouble was, they remembered where they were born and kept trying to come back over, resulting in a few "chicken patties" on our road.


Someone told me those incubators work better plugged in though.... :goof J/K.

[wikked]

<Madden>
Beautiful day for some egg air hockey! hmm, you'd only get 3 shots on goal though, *fat chuckle*, messy too! *BOOM* haha! *gurgle/snort*
</Madden>

[slow85vette]

Good job mother Jabo!

[Korndogg]

i didnt know we sold incubators lol

[97z2801ss]

hahaha wow man thats pretty neat

[73Dustr]

Pretty cool Jabo, but once they hatch who's going to fly them south for the winter? Or can they be litter box trained? It's pretty cool you'd take all that time and effort for that, best of luck to you and your ducklings.

[Ricky Bobby]

great now my wife seen this and asked so whats he gonna do with them, do u think i could raise one, damn i need to lock my pc now :goof

[awsomeears]

Dude thats awsome !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope they hatch and grow, you should start to prepair a Large Fen type deal in the back yard.

You do realize you will be the Mother when they hatch, im serious too.

I could have been born and thrown to Munks and called them mom and dad


: -0

[Corvette Jabo]

Of the 3 eggs I can only see movement on 1 of the eggs. The other 2 are either dead or they are too big to be able to candle. I will have to start planning on a container for when they hatch. I will most likely pick up one of the clear, plastic storage containers from WalMart and several big bags of pine shavings for the bottom. I will have to add the pine shavings and set up a light at the right wattage and distance so the temp will be at 90 degrees for the day they hatch.

My wife has been really cool about the whole thing. Buying the incubator, feed, feeders and watering fixtures. And when they hatch, she wants me to bring them upstairs and keep them in the spare room we call the computer room. I have no idea how loud they are or what the smell will be like. I imagine if they smell, I can move them out into the garage.
Jabo

[Ricky Bobby]

my grandpa used to have 2 of them in his basement and they sh!t all over the place and made all kinds of noise but they were cool to have :thumbsup

[Corvette Jabo]

*****They are starting to hatch!!!*********
:banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana

[Yooformula]

pics?

[wikked]

this thread is worthless without bbq sauce :D

pics too i guess.

[Corvette Jabo]

This one is kind of hard to see, but this one just broke the shell. About 5 PM.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/Picture001.jpg

This one was around 9 PM ish.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/Picture002.jpg

[slow85vette]

Once they're fully out and squaking, you not going to get a good nights rest for awhile! Have fun! :thumbsup

[Neal Steffek]

Sweeeeet. We need more pics! :banana1:

[Teufelhunden]

Web Cam? :)

[Donny O.]

Web Cam? :)

ha ha ha....get it WEB....as in Web Feet cam?


sorry it's way to early for me to be up!!!

[Prince Valiant]

Are you going to take any paternity time off from work?

[Teufelhunden]

^^bwaaahahahaha

[Corvette Jabo]

Some sad news, we lost one over night. This one may have had some problems or got stuck in a bad position. I removed a little bit of the shell on the other two, to help them. According to what I have read and talking with the duck farm, after about 24 hours they can get dehydrated.
Hopefully when I get home tonight the other 2 will will be out.

Jabs

[Teufelhunden]

Bereavement leave too now!!

Sorry Jabo, I had too. :)

[mrz28M6]

i'm thinking eggs over easy :) along with a slice of ham!

[Corvette Jabo]

When I came home from work tonight the ducks made it 1/2 way out and then they became stuck to the membrain on the inside of the shell. We had to soak them in warm water to get them loose.

To make a long story short, we almost lost the other two. I called the duck farm they said there was a problem with the ducks and they may not make it. We have been giving them water every 30 minutes or so. They are looking fairly good so far and if they can make it through the night or the first 24 hours things may be ok.

Here you go:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/ducks003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/ducks004.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/ducks005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/ducks007.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/ducks008.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/ducks009.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/corvettejabo/Ducks/ducks010.jpg

Jabo

[Crawlin]

that's awesome! congrats. where's the cigars?

[Heat Seeker WS6]

Way to go Jabo!!

[Teufelhunden]

Good job, calling now....

[JohnnyT]

Nice work man!:thumbsup

[Slow Joe]

Very good Mother Jabo... :thumbsup

[73Dustr]

Way to go!:thumbsup I don't know how it is to raise ducks, but back in the day, we used to have rabbits that we planned on breeding (who knows why). Anyways, after the mother gave birth to three rabbits, she ended up dying the next day. From there, my mom went out and bought a tiny cage, eye droppers....She was up about every 3-4 hours feeding each one with an eyedropper. After about a week, the smallest one died, then the next one, the the largest one. That really sucked, I hope everything works out for you, especially since all the effort you've done researching and caring for them. Good luck Jabo.