Duck university - learning

The following are a few 'odds & ends' photos that are interesting.

Brooder.  The first pictures are the inside of our Brooder - in our case a Rubber Maid tub.  Per directions we found in one of our many Google searches, we lined it with newspaper and then a fitted/framed piece of chicken wire.  Since the chicken wire was framed (corner moulding cut to size with the chicken wire stapled onto it), it stayed just above the newspaper (dry duck feet) and could be easily lifted out to change the newspaper.

Food & Water. I bought a small poultry water bottle and put marbles in it to keep the ducklings from trying to stand in the water trough.  (I'm not sure in hind-sight that that was really necessary, but I had the marbles on hand and it was recommended somewhere...).   I also purchased a small poultry feeder.  It is really just a long tray with a removable top.  The top has holes in it to allow for beaks.  I thought it would also keep the food cleaner, but - no.  The ducklings walked all over it, pooping everywhere as ducks do*.  I just made sure to put in clean food each day.
Food - I purchased duck/duckling food at Fleet Farm initially, but later learned that the local small feed & supply store also carried it.  Big, huge bags - 30 lbs at least.  At the smaller stores you can usually get it in smaller bulk portions, but I didn't know how much to get and it wasn't expensive.  The food was meant for all types of poultry.  I think the bag said "chickens, ducks, quail".  It was essentially a crushed corn with some protein added to it.  Ducklings cannot eat whole corn and they should not be fed food with antibiotics in it - so double check that.

Heat Lamp.  Very important.  We got ours at fleet farm - can't remember the exact price, but it was around $5.  The ducklings will need it for the first week for sure.  Longer if you are keeping them in a cool area.

The Lovey.  The teddy bear in the picture falls into the category of "unnecessary and gross".  We found recommended (online somewhere) that the ducklings would need something to cuddle with and bond to after they hatched.  Sounds good, right?  It became apparent quickly that, although the ducklings did seem to like cuddling with the teddy bear, it was 1) a launching pad for ducks to escape the brooder (see video in previous post) and 2) covered in duck poop*.   After only two days, the teddy bear got the boot.  Now, if you only have one or two ducklings, this may be more important.  But we had nine - they could cuddle together.  It did make for some cute  photos, though!

*Note:  Duckling and ducks are incredibly cute, very fun but SOOOOOO messy.  I keep reading that chickens are much cleaner, so if you've raised chickens, don't assume it is the same with ducks.  They eat and poop, eat and poop, eat and poop.  Constantly.  I had to change the brooder box papers and completely hose the box out every day.  When they moved to a larger pen, and grew, it just became a bigger job.  Some days (before we adopted out a few) it had to be done twice a day.  Invest in a good pair of gloves, be near a hose and scavenge your neighborhood on recycling day for everyone's old newspapers.  We went through what seemed like tons of newspaper.  

The next phase.

All the ducklings are done hatching. Only one did not survive, so that leaves us with nine. It doesn't seem like too many now, but it will be soon!

Today the ducklings learned how to jump and took their first swim. Both very exciting for the ducks and for their people!


Escape Artists

Apparently two day old ducks are much braver and smarter than one day old ducks. As I was fillng up their water bottle in the kitchen, I heard some "peeping" that sounded awfully close. There beside me, was a duckling. Just taking a walk through the kitchen. It was actually adorable. But still, how did he get out? Turns out that the ducklings have learned how to jump. Once one duck figured it out, they all started giving it a try. They would climb to the top of the teddy bear, and jump. Sadly, that was the end of the teddy bear. They will now have to cuddle with just each other.

Swimming Lessons





We decided to let the ducklings have their first swim today. When ducklings first hatch, they have down, not flight feathers. It is the flight feathers that are water repellant. Down is actually absorbant. In the wild, the mama duck transfers oils from her body to the little ducklings to protect them from getting too wet and too cold (apparently). Since we don't have a mama duck, our ducklings can get too cold in water. They can only go for a short swim, then back to the heat lamp. We found a site online that suggested letting the little ducklings swim for the first time in a paint tray, since it would be shallow and have an easy-in, easy-out ramp. We had a couple of those so that is what we did. I'm not sure who enjoyed the swimming more - the ducklings or our family watching them.

It's getting crowded in here!

Note:
OK, no more excuses.  It is December, almost the end of the year.  Time to finally update everyone on how the whole "duck thing" ended up.  Since I am way behind, I am going to be posting several  old updates that never made it past the draft stage.  So, for the the remaining "duck" posts, when I say "yesterday", you know I mean "June, July or August".  I'll try to include the date.  Thanks for your patience! 

The Eggs - May 26, 2011
Yesterday was a big day. When we woke upu, one duckling had already hatched. A little bit later, the second duckling was ready and we got to watch the big event. What a struggle! When they are finally free of the egg, they just lay on the ground and rest for a while (you can see that in the pictures). Luckily, yesterday was a late start day at school so the kids were still home. After the first two ducklings hatched, nothing much happened for a long time. After lunch, I checked the eggs and saw nothing. I headed outside to do some planting. When I cam back inside 45 minutes later, there were three ducks! Then later, four. Five. By late last night we had six ducklings. This morning we have seven. I'm nut sure about the last three eggs. They don't have anything happening yet - we'll see!






The Fans
Yesterday was also a big visitation day. We had lots of curious children and their parents come to see the hatching ducklings. These little ducklings are quite the celebrities! Of course, they don't know that.





The Big Move - May 27, 2011
The newly hatched ducklings have to stay in the incubator for 12 hours after hatching. That gives them plenty of time to dry out and fluff up. It's also important for us to keep the incubator shut as much as possible to keep the humitity inside so the remaining unhatched ducklings don't have their cracked egg membranes dry out. That could be fatal to them. The ducklings were VERY ready to be out of their incubator by this morning. They were jumping all over inside and pecking at the glass windows. Tony assembled a "brooder" box for them yesterday, so we were all ready to go. This morning we moved the first six ducklings to their new home. (The seventh duckling just hatched and isn't ready.) This was the first time we got to hold the ducklings. I don't know if I can say this enough - THEY ARE SO CUTE! Even thoug they are tiny, they are still quite big in comparison to their shell. The shell was about 1/4 air pocket - so that means that the duckling was squeezed into the remaining 3/4. It's amazing how fast they develop, too. If you go back in my posts, you'll see the picture of the "candled" egg. That was just before Mother's Day. At that point, you can see that the egg still contained just a bunch of interconnected veins. Speedy growth!

So now the ducklings are in their brooder box (Thank you, Google!). They have a water supply, duckling food, a heat lamp and a teddy bear. The teddy bear is because they need something to imprint on. They think the bear is their mama. She is warm, soft and cuddly. She also lets the ducklings climb all over her. Awwww!! The ducklings will stay in the brooder box most of the time until... we don't know. Until they don't fit, I guess!



Photos
Here are some pictures to enjoy from yesterday and this morning. I'm having a hard time uploading the video, so that will come later. Enjoy!

Duckling # 2!

The first duck was scooting over to the second hatching duck. It was like he was cheering his brother on. So cute. (I have a feeling I'm going to use that phrase a lot!)

Here they come, one by one!

This morning when we woke up, there was one little duck sitting outside it's shell. Luckily, the kids have late start this morning, so they were able to be here and see duck number 2 hatch. So exciting. We have been around hatching eggs before, like at the fair, but the process is so slow that we have never seen the actual hatch. Here are some videos of the first duckling. Enjoy!

This last video is of the first hatched duckling peeping.  We had no idea that ducklings peeped!  It sounds a little lost... but her siblings will be joining her soon.  I'm sure they can hear the peeping, too!

I can hear them peeping inside their shells!

Ok, now this is really cool. I can hear them peeping inside their shells. I am a total city girl, born and raised. I have no experience with baby animals of any sort. This is exciting! I can't wait for the kids to get home from school so they can hear it, too! I've added a video. If you turn up your volume, and listen closely, you should be able to hear them also.

Here they come...

Today was the day that we thought they might start to hatch, according to our educated guess. This morning, before breakfast, we opened up the incubator and sure enough, little "pips" have appeared! Right on time. You have to look close to see them, but almost all of the eggs have them this morning. ("Pip" is when the duckling makes the first cracks from the inside of the shell. ) If you look very closely at the egg, you can see an outward dent on the side. That is the pip.

In order to keep the eggs "upright" while they were incubating, we had put some big bubble wrap underneath them. They needed to keep their air pocket (which is in the wide end of the egg) up. Once the ducklings hatch, they won't be able to stand up and walk well, so I had to pick up the eggs to remove the bubble wrap from underneath them. Even the eggs that had not "pipped" yet were wiggling. All ten eggs appear to be hatching. From everything we have read, the hatching process is difficult for ducklings and they don't always all survive even the incubation process. Now don't get me wrong, I don't really want any of the little guys to not make it. But I think ten baby ducks is a lot... even for a mama duck!

What have we gotten ourselves into?? Yikes!

Stay tuned for updated pictures and video.

Adventures in Raising Ducklings - the beginning.

Tidbits is going to be changing gears for a few weeks to accommodate an exciting new adventure in the Nugteren house.
Ducklings.

I mean seriously, not much is cuter than baby ducks, right?

We came by this unintentionally, but none-the-less, we are excited. And nervous. I mean, I'm nervous. We all know this is mostly going to be my gig with some Dad help in the evenings and on weekends. Our kids are also going to be called into action, but they are 7 & 9 and still in school for a few more weeks! I'm trying to quickly get my undergrad in egg and duckling care via Google as we speak, but I know a lot of it is learning on-the-job. Yikes.

A little background on how this came about. We live in a suburb, but our backyard has a pond in it. Hence the ducks. We also live very near a big nature area. Hence the fox. We didn't know we had a duck nest right outside our front door, until the fox started coming around. I was sitting at the table, eating breakfast, when I noticed a big animal (I thought a dog) by our front door. When I got up to look, I was shocked to see a fox. It was 9:00! It grabbed something under the bush and ran off. A few minutes later it was back. This time I could tell the fox had an egg in it's mouth, and I noticed the agitated mama duck 50 feet away. Every couple of minutes the hungry fox came back and every few minutes I scared him off. Eventually he stopped, and mama duck returned to her nest. That was Monday, May 2. I took a couple of photos and videos to show my husband and the kids. The kids and I were so excited to see the mama duck on her nest and excited to see the ducklings hatch!

Tuesday he returned again, mid-morning, and I had to keep scaring him off.

By Wednesday I was ready to put up a little protective fence around the nest, but it was too late. When we went outside to catch the bus, the area around the bus was littered with masses of feathers. The fox didn't return and neither did the mama duck. We had to discuss how, though sad, there were probably some very hungry baby fox nearby who needed food, too. Circle of life.

RIP Mama Duck! :-(

By now we were emotionally invested and couldn't watch the fox come back any more to finish off the unprotected nest. We brought the eggs inside. All ten of them. Gulp.











A little searching on Google let us know that we were going to need an incubator. My first clue that this was not going to be simple. Luckily my husband found one locally on Craigslist. Now the fun ( work?) begins. Duck eggs need to be kept humid, too. It's very specific actually, but since we don't have a way to measure this, we are just doing our best with hot water bowls in the incubator. I really hope that is good enough! There is also a very important temperature range the eggs need to be kept at. Between 99 an 99.5 degrees. Did you catch that? That is NOT a range. Again, just doing our best here. Luckily, the incubator has a thermometer and is adjustable. The last bit of important egg sitting information is turning the eggs. Three times a day. It is so they don't develop and adhere to the shell. Kind of like duckling bedsores. I'd be curious to see a mama duckling turning her eggs a third of a turn three times a day....








The first day we had the eggs indoors, my husband Tony, candled them to make sure they were all alive. Candling is when you hold a bright light (flashlight) behind them to see inside. In this picture, you can see a red center spot with veins coming out of it. You can also see the air sack at the bottom. The little red spots moved all around. We think this was day 5 - 7.






This is our Hovabator incubator. Pretty low tech, but it does the job.























Over Mother's Day weekend we went to South Dakota to visit our families. We had to line up an egg sitter. We dropped off the incubator, with instructions at our neighbors house. (Thank you Angie!!) Thankfully they have two young girls who were thrilled to help. Once these ducklings hatch, I'm thinking we will definitely be calling them again! We have only a vague idea of when the eggs will hatch, as we don't know exactly how old the eggs are. We are speculating the last week in May. Of course, we are supposed to stop turning the eggs 2 - 3 days prior.... I'm not sure how we are going to get that one right!

I'll post again when they start to "pip" out. (that is the technical term - thank you Google!)