This again

28 days does a duckling make

So here we are, doing things that make us feel, as Glennon Doyle calls it: Scited. (You know her, the author of Untamed AND a new podcast called We Can Do Hard Things which I'm super excited about). Scited is when you're scared and excited all at the same time. This time though, we got ourselves into this unknowingly. Cue the dream sequence music.......It all started in the front yard of one of the doctors I work with, Dr. James. In a bush, in his front yard was a mallard duck sitting on a clutch of eggs. I didn't know this was happening, but he and his family had been watching this mama duck hide in the bushes and sit on her eggs for an unknown amount of time. His house is near a pond in their neighborhood which has ducks, and it seems they visit his swimming pool often as well. I received a call from Dr James and thinking it was work related, I was surprised to find out it was duck related instead. He called me to let me know that he had awoken one morning to find the mother duck dead from a predator attack and the eggs lying there unattended. He said he was going to buy an incubator and put the eggs in there and then asked if I would take the incubator and eggs, and see if I would take over care of them, all in hopes they would actually hatch. Of course, I say. And you know what happens next. David and I zoomed over to Dr. James house that day after work and picked up the incubator with six duck eggs inside. We did initially candle them at his house, and later would estimate them at approximately day 20, although not completely sure as we’ve never attempted to hatch duck eggs much less use an incubator to do so. But the internet is a great place to gather this type of information, and so we did. We made it safely home with the eggs in the incubator, riding the whole bumpy way back home in David’s lap while I drove as crazy as possible. Not really, it just feels that way when you have an incubator and 6 fragile duck eggs in your lap. 

Back home jiggity jig and we are scited. With minimal information such as how far along the duck eggs really were in their growth, how long they had been left unattended and possibly cooled down in the night of the attack, and 101 questions about the incubator settings in regards to not knowing the age of the ducks, we begin our search for information. What we did know from Dr. James was that they are Mallard ducks and that his children are very anxious to keep track of how they’re doing, and would like to come over when they start hatching, and have even expressed an interest in a reveal party that we shall give the ducks when they are old enough to go up to our pond. A Pond Reveal party for the ducklings when they are old enough to be released into our pond - how eggciting!

After arriving home with the incubator and duck eggs inside, and consulting the internet, we carefully placed it on the kitchen table and set the temperature of 99.5 Fahrenheit degrees and humidity of 55%. 

Eggs carefully placed in the egg turner device
inside the incubator. It will turn them for us. 

This all seems to be the consensus in regards to settings for duck eggs. So we did that. I mean, we have raised chicks before numerous times, right. Too many times to count. But we've never used an incubator for it, and it basically means that you're in charge now. If it gets messed up, it's all your fault. Don't duck it up.

We do have several friends who have incubators and often incubate fertile chicken eggs. We've even discussed this with them before, so we have a working knowledge of not letting the eggs get too hot, nor get too cold, nor get too dry or too damp (think humidity) so that they drown in their eggs. We did consult our good friend, the internet, and found out more than enough information to either be successful. Don't duck it up.  

We’ve got this memorized now

For example, here’s a chart of what the eggs would look like when you candle them to help estimate how many days old they are. What is candling? 

Candling an egg allows you to see inside and
check the progress  

Candling is where you look inside the egg (in a dark room) using a light, such as a flashlight, and see the progress of the embryo as it begins to turn into a duckling. We had to check this chart often, and although not wanting to open up the incubator on a regular basis, we did candle the eggs several times to become fairly confident about the age of the duck eggs.

It's moving! 

So this all started on a Friday night and at that time we estimated the age of the eggs to be approximately at day 20, although only an estimate. When you are hatching duck eggs you normally know how old the eggs are when you put them in the incubator because the nice thing is, the incubator has a setting that you can put the number of days old the egg is and it helps guide you in regards to the settings of a chicken or a duck egg. There is generally a steadfast temp and humidity level for eggs in an incubator, but also a different setting once the eggs are close to hatching. For example, a duck egg will hatch at approximately day 28 and at day 25, the literature advises to put them in lockdown mode. What is lockdown mode? Lockdown mode is where you are not going to be opening the incubator any further, David, as the ducklings need to have a higher humidity rate, and also there is no longer a need to turn the eggs. You're not supposed to turn the eggs at this time because it will confuse the duckling on where the yolk and the air sac is and can cause complications with their hatching. So when Wednesday afternoon came around, we did candle them again and deemed them as day 25 (checking the chart closely and watching many youtube videos) which qualified them for lockdown mode. Ya know, there's an algorithm for all this business, and the fact the mama duck has this programmed in their genetics is simply amazing. Okay, so to reiterate, this means we will not be turning the eggs any further, David, although the eggs were being automatically turned by the incubator. So the eggs will not be turned anymore, and we will lower the temperature by 1° and increase the humidity up to 70%, to allow the inside of the eggs to have increased moisture so that the ducklings can move around more freely and get themselves out of their egg more easily. When the ducklings first start pecking to get out of the egg, they have eaten through the yolk first, gotten into the air sac inside their egg, and are now pecking through the shell to get more air from the outside world and make their way into this big wide world in which we live.

Let me just say that as I blog, we are on day 25 in the initial stage of the lockdown mode, which starts approx 3 days before hatching at day 28. Wait, I think I said that already. Anyway, we candled them before we did this, and now it’s going to be up to them to make their entrance in this world. We wait. Right, David? We wait. And as soon as we see a duckling pipping, we are to call Dr. James and report to their family so that they can come over and watch the hatching of the eggs. Now they may not see all of the hatchings, as it takes time (sometimes hours) to hatch. Sometimes this happens in the middle of the night and sometimes during the day. But we will alert Dr. James' family, his wife and their children so that they can come over and be a part of this event. After all, the ducklings are alive due to their diligence in saving them. And their girls really want to know the ducklings are okay and witness their births. I’m very excited for them to watch this process. 

Side note: I used to term pipping because apparently that’s what it’s called. When the duckling starts pecking its way out of the egg and creates an air hole, the term used is pipping. When we see the pipping begin, then generally all of the ducklings are typically born within approximately a 24 hour period. Some will be hatched faster than others, depending on their strength and position in their egg.

I’m happy to say that when we candled the eggs and looked inside each of the six eggs prior to lockdown, we saw movement by the ducklings in all six eggs. So far so good. We'll see if they survive their hatching now.

So you’re probably asking yourself what do we do with them after they are born? Well, they can stay in the incubator for about 24 hours living in the warm environment and having had the nutrition from the yolk inside their egg that will last them for about a day. After that, we move them to a brooder environment which will be in the house and have a heat lamp, food and water accessible to them, and since they are ducks, they get a little tiny pond of their own to swim in. We have done this multiple times with chicks in our lives (minus the tiny pond) and this will be our first time for raising ducks in the house - from an egg. 

The egg positioner is out and 
now they will have more room
for their hatching

6 eggs willy nilly now
Come on guys, you can do it🐣

Hay Girl Hay

I wanted to tell you how great Dora and Hope are doing.

 

These girls are the best 

They each previously had rowdy kiddos (Diego and Faith, respectively). Now, they are both empty nesters and have become the closest horse friends you can find. I never imagined this to be the case, but they really enjoy each other and quite frankly, depend on each other. 

Hope has come so far in life #proud

Dora is shedding her winter coat 
slowly, but surely 

Lately, the mini's have been in the barn quite a bit due to all the rain, and we've been feeding them in there as well. The flies this year are ridiculous, so I got them the purple tub you see in the pic above that has ClariFy in it. It's a mineral block with a product called ClariFly that prevents the emergence of adult stable and house flies from the manure of said treated horses. ClariFly® inhibits the formation of chitin, a key component of the exoskeleton, and the fly is unable to survive. How cool is that technology and science? Oh yeah, got one for the donkeys, too. We try to do all we can to keep these stinking flies at bay around here. With so much poop around here - it makes that quite a task. But we keep trying.

Turtle Soup

I've never had turtle soup, but thinking that might be in the cards. Hahaha, you know that’s a big lie. What is in the cards is this.....

Fancy pants turtle trap

After David built his DIY version of a turtle trap, 

No one ever fell in the net ☹️

we did not get any takers, and decided to purchase one instead. This newly purchased trap is meant for the turtles to climb up and “sun”, and ooppps, fall in the cage below.

Hoping we get that 
many turtles (and more), and 
No, Brooke, this guy is not included 
with the purchase 

This is not David, of course, but it IS what we hope to happen. We are trying to trap some of the 1,002 turtles living in the pond as we prepare to stock the pond with blue gill fish and catfish. Turtles eat fish eggs and some small fish, so we'll need to rehome or dispose of some turtles in the pond. Now don't get too excited if you are a turtle lover. I'm happy to give some to you, just let me know. This is assuming this new trap really does work. Here goes.......

Here little turtle, over here

Ebbing and Flowing

David is ebbing through his recovery from his hernia surgery. Anything is better than having that hernia, so he's moving through it like a champ. He's got his PET scan coming up in a couple of weeks, and we are on cruise control right now, loving some downtime from treatments or more surgeries. 

Loving that thumb and his Pops

I flowed through my 5 weeks of iron infusions and celebrated it with running the Cowtown (Fort Worth) half marathon this past Saturday (first in-person race since forever) finishing with a newly-made friend during the race and we crossed the finish line together, holding hands high in the air with big smiles.

My new friend had no idea the personal celebration I had going on in my head, yet we shared a mutual celebration of finishing the race strong and thoroughly enjoyed having one another to run the race with - an unexpected surprise for us both. 

Lauren is ebbing and flowing through her life all while celebrating Brooks 7 month birthday.

Birth to 7 months. Looking good, girl 💕

Look how far you've come. Mother's Day was a first for Lauren and they celebrated by taking Brooks to the Dallas Museum of Art.

Brooks is a fan

It's still hard for me sometimes, to realize this.....

Front yard shenanigans 

.....ended up having one of her very own....

Yes, you are 6 and 3/4 months old

Clucks not ducks

Cluckingham is ebbing and flowing with the new 8 chicks growing and thriving. 

I see you, little Polish chick with your 🎩 

I recently enlarged the little chicks area, and the big girlz are all jumping inside their penned area to inspect it - and eat their treats. 

More room for the little munchkins 

I even have a couple of hens like Spice, Walter and Poppy laying their eggs inside the chicks little coop. They think they own the place, but actually, it's probably a good thing for the little 8 chicks to get used to having those big girlz around so they can start adjusting to who else lives in the town of Cluckingham. All the chickens are doing well, and even our senior girlz are hanging in there. Wait, we did lose our older Wyandotte. 

RIChickenHeaven, Sweet Pea

She passed of old age. We last left her at the water bucket, as we couldn't help but notice she was standing there for a long time taking a sip every 10 minutes or so, doing the long blink thing. Then, we came out the next morning and found she just laid right there and passed, by the water bucket in the barn. She got her last drink on. And laid down to rest. Sweet girl. We'll miss you. You are a beauty. 

To end on a happy note, I’m here to report that Louie, Dewey and Huey are living up at the pond like a boss. They love to chase away any other fowl that arrives by air. We had some visitors fly in recently, and they did not like other ducks in their pond. Fine, but you best know there’s more ducks on the way. Granted, they are Mallards and will fly away to migrate eventually. But you drakes best be nice - or else. And I don’t know what “or else” is but I’ll get it worked out. 

Gotta go check the incubator. David is probably standing next to it staring a hole through those duck eggs. He’s a nervous duck dad. 

The things we do,

Cyndi