On April 1st, 2008 the girls and I ventured out into the wild, wild, country world and visited a farm. We came back with several duck eggs, one quail egg, and a few chicken eggs, and an incubator.
It really isn’t an incubator. It is a UFO from my home planet. See?
Anyhoo, it works really well for heating up some of those there duck eggs.
Ok, back to the reason for this post. So, we followed the directions for the incubation thing. I turned them every morning and every evening because I am a good duck mama. The little eggs were so good. I never heard any complaints out of them.
It has been 18 days since we acquired these eggs and according to the instructions, we can “candle” them. So, I decided to do just that. I lit a candle and stuck it behind one of the eggs. It didn’t work. So…I brought down my son’s lizard light, it didn’t work either. Now I am thinking we have no ducks. 😦
Yes, I am waisting precious homeschool time, trying to figure out if we will have ducks. I’m calling this a science day. Lacy at Razor Family Farms directed me over to Backyard Chickens and from there I found how to candle an egg.
Updated to add: Lacy has a very cute video of her baby ducks in the bathtub. Go check it out here and write a comment.
Back to candling an egg. I followed the lady’s instructions. Sometimes it is just good to follow directions.
First I candled LED a store bought egg.
Then I LED a duck egg.
Not a great picture, but you might be able to see the veins.
Below is another shot. My oldest took the pictures for me. 🙂
We got to see the ducklings moving around inside. It was pretty cool. We should have some little duckies in about a week. I have to search some more, I keep getting incubation dates between 21 and 28 days, so not sure which is correct.
And finally here is my youngest duckling, waiting for the eggs to hatch.
I am hoping to get photos of them hatching. 😀
Interested in your own chic incubator and unitstudy? Go to Home Science Tools. 😀
APPLIE'S PLACE 
How exciting!! That was very informative. I bet the kids are overjoyed!!
So, where is your home planet?
It’s up there. We were talking about that last night. Kids are a little confused. They think they are 100% human, but they are not. This must be why I am the only normal person on earth.
It’s up there. We were talking about that last night. Kids are a little confused. They think they are 100% human, but they are not. This must be why I am the only normal person on earth.]]>
How exciting for your ducklings,er…children. We have done that too. What are you planning to do with the ducks after they hatch? Will you raise them?
Sylvia
Hi Sylvia! We will raise them for about two weeks and then we have to give them back to the lady we got them from. We are not allowed to have poultry as pets, especially noisy ducks. LOL
Hi Sylvia! We will raise them for about two weeks and then we have to give them back to the lady we got them from. We are not allowed to have poultry as pets, especially noisy ducks. LOL]]>
I like the picture of your youngest duckling, best! 🙂
Thanks for sharing, Applie. It is great to see normal people hatching ducks in their kitchen. 😉
We’ve never candled any of our chicken eggs, so that would be a good project for the boys the next time we have a broody hen and we let them hatch a batch.
What a GREAT post, Michelle! I love the pictures of your ‘bator! Where did you find it? It is adorable! Do you have to turn the eggs or does it do that for you? Or is it one of those super-cool new models that circulates the air?
Thank you for linking to my site. You are just the sweetest person!
Blessings!
Lacy
Lacy, we got “bator” from the lady with the ducks. I’ll put a link in the post where you can get one. It is not a great incubator and what I have heard, it is not reliable.
Lacy, we got “bator” from the lady with the ducks. I’ll put a link in the post where you can get one. It is not a great incubator and what I have heard, it is not reliable. ]]>
Your adventure with the incubator sounds wonderful! I really enjoyed reading this! I love the freedom and creativity that home education allows! I support homeschool 100% for so many reasons! The internet is a wonderful resource tool – use it! Check out my blog for some great links!
It is 21 says for chickens and 28 days for ducks, give or take a day or two depending on the species. Ours pipped at 26 days and was out of the shell completely a whole 30 hours later!
It usually takes them a while to break out, and trying to ‘help’ them along can cause more harm than good! They actually absorb the yolk sack and all those blood vessels just before they hatch and if you break the shell to help them get out you may sever a blood vessel. They may bleed to death.
When they start pipping you need to provide a little more humidity for them. If the air is too dry they might struggle to come out.
I am so glad you have duckies! This was my favorite homeschool project ever!
Thanks, Sumi, for the advice!! I think the time will be around 30 or May 1st.
Thanks, Sumi, for the advice!! I think the time will be around 30 or May 1st. ]]>
Hi Michelle!
The ducks are about three weeks old and have grown very quickly. They were so tiny when we got them!
I just posted a slide show with pictures of the ducks, chickens, and guineas so everyone can see their progress.
I’m off to work on the next recipe page: hot chicken salad. Yummy.
Blessings and thanks!
Lacy
Your incubator certainly is cute; it resembles a UFO. Hatching ducklings looks like it’d be an exciting project. =) Your little one certainly looks happy about it.
The UFOs from your Home Planet are remarkably different in contrast to mine.
Your Duckie Adventures here are so exciting to read about! 😀
Duckie hugs, Robin
Cute……
😆
Awesome! You have a great blog! SO many neat things to read about!