Well, the plan was good, to incubate 20 duck eggs, hatch some more ducklings and continue improving my stock. I thought I could maybe even enter the British Waterfowl National Show in November this year if I had any real ‘good lookers’ but as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry…
The first problem I had was after candling the eggs. I found 18 out of 20 were infertile. Why? I don’t know. The last batch of 12 were all fertile, the drake seemed healthy and was certainly happy. As I had candled these eggs quite late into the incubation period, the two remaining eggs were well developed and looked promising so I decided to try to at least hatch 2 but then days before the hatch, I could see very little further development in one of the two eggs and I was left with only one viable egg.
Is it fair to hatch just one duckling? I have always tried to ensure my animals are happy and part of that involves providing company for them with more of their own species, but here I was faced with a decision – could I kill one very viable, healthy duckling that was about to face the incredible challenge of breaking out of his shell? Or should I let him hatch and see him cheep as he sits their looking for a mother or the company of other ducklings? I manage to kill young cockerels, chicks even that I know are cockerels to save the hardship of growing them, getting to know them and then having to do the dirty deed but could I kill this little duckling? No I couldn’t.
So last weekend, the shell pipped and 12 hours later, out popped a very exhausted little duckling who has now adopted the name of ‘The Lonely Duckling’. He (or she) is a very sweet little thing that the children adore (Why this duckling when we regularly hatch them, I don’t know).
The story of this lonely duckling will continue. For now, he has a little teddy bear to cuddle up to and gets lots of fuss from us, his new found family. Our plan for this little one is to pop him in with our other, older ducklings as soon as he is big enough but this will be 4 or 5 weeks away at least. Until then, he is slowly becoming more and more tame, more tame than any of our other ducklings have ever been.
If you want to see the lonely duckling, he is on the poultrykeeper lonely duckling webcam of course! That is if you aren’t reading this long after the event…
#1 by Jonathan West on May 16, 2011 - 7:52 pm
Hi, I’m wondering what happened with that duck? Was it ok? I’m asking because I awoke this morning to find one of my two ducklings dead. I have to idea what happened to it.
I now only have one and he seems very sad. I went out and bought him a stuffed animal but it’s not the same. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. Also, I know this is an old post so idk if I’ll even get a response. Worth a try though.
#2 by Tim Daniels on May 16, 2011 - 8:54 pm
Hi Jonathan,
We borrowed a duckling from someone else. They were a little older (a few weeks) but they soon bonded and I kept them together for 8 weeks or so until she was able to join her older brothers and sisters outside. It’s best to have a mate for them if at all possible – maybe an ad on our forum or contacting local breeders of waterfowl would help..