Category Archives: Poultry

Fuzzy duck

Three ducklings had hatched by this morning. A fourth had started to emerge, but sadly it looks as if it hasn’t made it. Six eggs to go.

We transferred the three into the brooder under the nice warm electric hen. They are much less lively than the chicks we hatched a month ago. They didn’t take much interest in the food and water until later in the day, and they don’t scamper about as much. Maybe that’s just one of the differences between chickens and ducks!

Here they are earlier on, huddled in the corner because I’d briefly lifted the electric hen for a photo opportunity.


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The first duckling hatches

I mentioned that we were incubating some duck eggs for a friend at the allotments. Duck eggs take a whole four weeks to hatch, and the exact due date is 6pm tomorrow evening.

The first one has arrived a day early.
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8 Chicks and a Maggie’s 6

I finally sorted out the house and run for the chicks. Not before time: they’re three weeks old now, and are getting a bit big for the brooder, not to mention a bit messy.


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The chicks venture out

We put the chickens outside today for the first time. They went out mid-morning, and came back in at around 6 o’clock as it began to get chilly. Did they love it? You bet!


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Chicks and Chickens

The chicks are two weeks old. They are developing beautifully; their wing feathers are now complemented by emerging tail feathers. Admittedly they’re also looking a bit scruffy, as they’re shedding their fluff to make way for the feathers.


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Ducks Deluxe

We candled the ten duck eggs that we’re incubating on behalf of our friend Salvador. To our great delight, all ten are fertile and developing well. You can just about see the embryo and the web of veins that extends around the yolk.

Duck eggs take 28 days to hatch, and today is day 8, so the hatching date will be Sunday 22nd April.

Another hen is laying – at last!

We’d almost given up on middle and junior hen. Only senior hen has been laying, a steady four eggs a week. But this afternoon, the nestbox contained two eggs, and a quick look showed that junior hen has started egg production.

It’s a small start, literally. Senior hen’s egg, on the right, weighs 63 grams, which is fairly typical. Junior’s first egg of 2012 is a modest 44 grams, and is a rather elongated shape.

Still, maybe we’re on course to incubate some successfully. The duck eggs will be finished in 3 weeks’ time, so we’re planning another hatch beginning late April.

The chicks are a week old

Well, one of them is. Most will be one week old tomorrow. Here they are on Monday, when most were 3 days old. They’re still at the “bundle of fluff” stage, but growing rapidly. We’ve progressed from food and water in a saucer to a proper chick feeder and drinker.


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Picture post: hatching eggs

I’ll start with a sentimental picture of adorable fluffy chicks, so that everyone can say, “Aaaaah”.

But the point of this post is simply to show eggs as they hatch. I managed to record all of the final four of our hatching eggs. Two on Friday lunchtime, one late afternoon, and the final one on Saturday morning at about 8am.
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Hatch!

It’s been three long weeks since we put the eggs in the incubator to hatch, and two weeks since we candled them for fertility, which brought the numbers down from 17 to 8.

I haven’t messed with them since then, and just let the incubator do its work. Every hour the eggs were turned, to the accompaniment of a little happy egg turning tune. Then on Tuesday evening, the incubator switched into hatching mode. The egg turning mechanism switched itself off, the temperature dropped half a degree, and the humidity rose to 60% to emulate the conditions for hatching under the broody hen. Friday (today at the time of writing).

Thursday evening, a day ahead of schedule, this little chap was born.


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