Lefty's Harem

The ducklings are the dark ones in the center

The ducklings are now big enough to join the others in the main coop. We were nervous when adding them together, but when we put them in they were welcomed very quick to the duck flock. Lefty seemed happy with the new addition, as he should be. We think of the three ducklings that made it, all of them are females. We are able to tell due to the chest feathers looking the same as the older females and their quacking is a lot louder and obnoxious, which is a sign of female khaki campbells. I'm not making this stuff up, it's just the way it is.

Ducklings' New House

   The ducklings recently were moved into a new temporary house, until they are old enough to live with the rest of the flock. When they were first born, they lived in a old guinea pig cage that we had. The problem with that was when ducks drink they put their bills in the water and take a sip then shake their heads back and forth  making everything wet. When you combine that with all the crumbs that fall out of their bills when they eat and the wood shavings it turned into a soupy mess in less then 24 hours. Then next house I tried was a quick wooded box with an old house screen on the bottom. I put the box and them in the garage so we didn't have to smell them. It work for a little bit but, because the box was on the cement all the water and waste stayed right under them. Again making a big soupy mess. Their new house is made to go outside and be moved around so the bottom can air out. What I did was take a old pallet I had and put some metal screen that someone gave me on the bottom. I also used the same screen for one of the sides, it's 3/8 of an inch spacing screen. Next I used some exterior plywood I had and put up some walls and a roof. Cut out a door and used some old hinges for it. I still need to put some wood siding and shingles on for a better look but so far it hasn't cost me anything to make.
   On a sad note, we're down to three ducklings. When they were living in the garage, something got in there and took some of them. We're not sure what it was but, made sure that the new house was built tight so nothing can get in.

Ducks

   These are what our new ducklings will eventually look like, they're the ducklings, parents. The two female ducks are the lighter color ones and the drake is the one with the darker head. The female ducks have been giving us an average of one egg a day from each of them. The drake's name is Lefty. The way he got that name is, when we got them in the spring as ducklings I filled up a big tub with water from the hose and put them in it to swim. They looked pretty good swimming, so I left them for a bit to do something else. When I came back he was doing a side stroke barely keeping his head above water. What I forgot to take into consideration was how cold the water was and hypothermia was starting to set in on him. I got them out and heated them up, especially Lefty. When he was back to temperature, the only thing wrong with him was his left wing stuck out sideways at the end. So we had to call him Lefty. Although he may be a lefty, the ducklings are proof he can get the job done.

Duckling Update

   All together we ended up with six khaki campbell ducklings. Out of the twelve eggs we put in the incubator, two of them were not fertilized or they didn't last long through the whole process. Three of them died in their shell after pecking a hole in it and not much more. We figured out that after 24 hours from the first peck in the shell, if they are not out then we needed to help them. We ended up helping five of them break open their shells. One of the ducklings came out with a dislocated hip and could only drag the one leg around. It ended up not making it.
  We now have six new ducklings to raise tell they're big enough to put in the coop with the other ducks and chickens. Hopefully most of them are   females so we can increase are egg production.

Success!

 On the 27th day we saw a little chip of the shell missing and knew the show was starting. Even though all the websites said they would take 30 days, one of them started that late afternoon. Not much happen the rest of the night and we thought by time we woke up their would be a duckling waiting for us. When woke up though, not much change on the first one but the one next to it started cracking. The second one took only a hour or so and he had popped out. Maybe it was Miss E cheering it on, or it was just a smaller bird so it was easier for the duckling. Either way, we had a real live duckling that we hatched on our hands and everybody was really excited. The websites also say not to help the ducklings come out of the shells at all either. But, with my wife and daughter telling me not to, I new that something had to been done with the first one. I used a pair of tweezers and slowly broke away some the egg shell pieces and membrane, stopping every now and then to see if I had done enough for it to push out on its own. Eventually it got out and proved the reason it took so long. It was a a lot bigger then the first one that hatched even though they were made on the same date. It also had some of the shell stuck to its back which made it hard for it to push out. We are the now the proud owners of two ducklings with more to come.

Things don't always go as planned

   We have been incubating Khaki Campbell duck eggs, and by this time we were thinking we would have a bunch of ducklings running around, but it didn't go as planned. We only have two female ducks, so we were only getting two eggs a day to put in the incubator. Khaki Campbell eggs take about 28 days to hatch, but around 20th day we noticed a smell coming from the incubator. It wasn't an unbearable smell, but still a smell like something was wrong. When we candled them around day 8 everything looked good, but when we candled them when the smell started we saw no movement or anything. We read that you are not supposed to wash the eggs when you get them from the coop because you'll take away the protective coat. With all the spots on the eggs  we were wondering if bacteria got into the eggs. The only thing that looked good was the air sack. We left them in the incubator hoping for the best, but after day 35 we decided that they didn't make it. I took them out into the woods and broke them open to see what happen. What I found was the egg that was the oldest had a pretty well formed duckling in it and the one that was ten days newer was not as well formed. That means that they all died at the same time. After talking to my wife she told me how my little boy was sitting up on the counter near the incubator, but she didn't notice him play with it.
When she checked on the eggs later she noticed that the temperature got turn way up. This is probably what killed the eggs.

   We are currently loading the incubator to try again. After doing some more research we are going to try some more things to insure are success, including keeping little hands away from the temperature knob. I have a couple of chickens that like to sit on their eggs; they also get mad at me when I take the eggs. I tried putting duck eggs under them to see if they would hatch them, but they don't stay on the eggs long enough to keep them warm. Sometimes a chicken won't be a duck.