I am getting two duck eggs tomorrow.....help?

Question

I have an incubator.

And everything is set up.

Im getting two Pekin duck eggs.

I was wondering...

when they hatch....

what do I need to do...

I need advice...

please?

thankyou.

Answer 1

I have decided to create this very personal “Frequently Asked Questions” page just for this purpose: to answer the many questions that our readers ask, by e-mail or in the Guest Book. I am no particular expert in duck breeding, nor, of course, have any veterinary training. I am just relating you what we have learned during our“adventure” with Pio Pis and Clotildone.

Q: What should ducklings eat?

A: Ducklings must have enough proteins and vitamins. We have risked loosing our Pio Pis due to lack of suitably rich food (combined with inadequate temperatures, see further). The standard commercial fodder, in our experience, has to be integrated with mineral salts and vitamins, both available in pet shops, to add to their drinking water. Our veterinarian suggested also a few types of protein rich human food, of course to be crumbled and cut into small pieces: e.g. boiled eggs, cheese, baby food.

Q: What can ducks eat?

A: Anything. At least, anything YOU can eat, and then something else, like snails, slugs, grasshoppers, crickets, and other assorted insects! Ducks do have individual preferences, but we found that both of them appreciated tomatoes as the highest ranking delicacy, maybe followed by snails, better if offered by us (!) instead of painstakingly searched in a big lawn! We have always supplied them with a good amount of commercial duck fodder, but they were constantly interested in experimenting: among others, they showed a taste for spaghetti or pasta, tortellini, “fusilli alla panna e piselli”, Parmesan cheese, ham, fruit (except oranges), cake….Lettuce and chicory, and many different types of ornamental plants, both water-plants and normal garden flowers, better if red ;-).... BUT WARNING: some gentle readers wrote me that a lot of ornamental plants are poisonous to ducks! Finally, you may wish to mix to their fodder some very finely minced eggshells, to provide calcium.

I think it goes almost without saying that a relatively small garden can already provide a part of the nourishment to your ducks, in the form of insects and the like. They will also graze the grass; I never had to cut the lawn in the part of garden where Clotildone and Pio Pis lived (I should say“owned“!).

Q: How to take care of ducklings in their first weeks of life?

A: The main problem is to avoid low temperatures. They should not go outside, at least for the first 4 weeks! In the wild, their mother duck would warm them, taking them under her wings, and you have to provide something to “imitate” this. Generally a cardboard box with fresh water to drink and straw at the bottom (to be changed VERY frequently), and an infrared lamp hanging over it can be OK. In order to understand if the temperature is OK, look at them: if they collect themselves in a small circle under the lamp, it is too cold; lower the lamp. If they leave an empty space under the lamp, it means it is too near to the ground: that is too hot. As a rule of thumb, I have found the following temperatures in a booklet: 1st week, 35 °C; 2nd week, 32 °C; 3rd week, 28 °C; 4th week, 25 °C. From the fifth week on, they can (and should!) graze outside, during the day: bring them back during the night.

Also, be careful to avoid bathing during the first weeks: do not look at our photographs: that was an error! They have no protective grease when they are so young. You will have the problem to avoid that your ducklings use the drinking water for bathing!

Q: Can they live outside in winter? Will it be too cold?

A: I have read that ducks are pretty healthy animals. We had built a duck house for them, with insulated walls, and for some months have tried to convince them that it was better, at the evening, to go inside. Fodder was always offered only inside their shelter, and they came in and out freely: I say this to explain that this was not an unfamiliar place for them. But when free to do so, even in the coldest days of winter, and snow (that by us can mean about–5 °C), they always preferred to come out and eventually shelter under a bush.

Nevertheless, we lost Pio Pis due to the winter cold. But then, she was always the weaker of the two, and I am not sure the cold was the real reason. Anyway try to avoid sudden changes in temperature: they can cause pneumonia.

Q: Will they fly (or walk) away, when free to do so?

A: This is difficult for me to say, because our ducks always lived in a closed garden, where they could not escape. Basically my impression is that when they are young, it is better to limit their wanderings, but when adults, they will return to the place where they receive food and affection. Concerning the flying away, ducks do fly. In fact we had to clip the feathers at the tip of the wings (this does absolutely no harm or pain, it is like clipping your nails), to avoid that they invaded the part of garden that we had not “surrendered” to them, including the ornamental pond. As a matter of fact, though, they flew over the low fence that separated“our” garden from“theirs” only occasionally, and NEVER flew over the higher fence that delimited the garden. This partially answers the original question.

Q: How long do they live?

A: I think it depends on the race, and our experience has not been long enough. Certainly the death of Pio Pis after just 2 years has to be considered abnormal, and surely due to illness. A kind reader has written me that the mean life expectancy is from 6 to 12 years, and even 16 in exceptional cases.

Q: How can duck become very tame and friendly?

A: Despite the beautiful photographs that you have seen, we were not

Hope this helped=) Good luck!

Answer 2

I don't know, but why didn't you research this before you ordered your eggs?  I'm sure someone will know though, good luck.

Answer 3

First of all you need to keep the eggs very very warm. I can see you have an incubator. that will work. sometimes they die for some reason. I hope it works out.

Answer 4

Well, while in the incubator, make SURE the temp and humidity is correct. Don't rust the thermometer that came with it, they are c**p. Also, make sure you turn the eggs three times a day.

What kind of incubator do you have? You should leave them in there until dry, but I have a little giant styrofoam incubator and the ducks are so tall that they burn their heads on the heating element, so they must be gotten out as soon as they start moving around.

Get them out and put them in a brooder under a heat lamp. Make sure they have food and water, but they don't have to eat for up to 24 hours after hatch, so its just incase.

Do not try and help them out of the egg until its been about 30 hours. A normal hatch can take up to 24 hours and if you help them before that you can kill them. They must absorb the yolk sac and intestines before hatch, so if you help and the haven't they will die.

Do not feed them medicated chick crumble, it will kill them. Also, do not let them in deep water until they are a few weeks old. Then you should watch every second they are in the water and make sure when they get out they aren't chilled. Do not let them swim alone or give them deep water dishes until they are fully feathered.