Hatching ducklings without an incubator (in an emergency)

I've been meaning to write this guide for a couple of months now, to help others that might find themselves in my situation.

A couple of months ago, my pekin and khaki campbell ducks made nests and began laying in them. I had heard that the mothering instinct had been bred out of them, so I figured I would leave it to nature and whatever she hatched, she hatched and I wouldn't interfere.

I did candle them when it had been a few weeks and I saw that they were at about day 24.

Then my pekin mum decided to leave the nest and party with the other ducks for extended periods. She wasn't interested in staying on it and had also started rolling the eggs out and destroying them. I didn't get to them quickly enough to see if any had been viable or not, they were empty.

I had read that sometimes they destroy eggs that are no good, sometimes they also attack and kill alive ducklings deliberately, Drakes are known to get jealous and kill them.

So, I decided to bring mine inside, but I didn't have an incubator. What to do?

All the research I did, told me that it couldn't be done. Ducklings need a constant temperature of 37.5 with 80% humidity to hatch.

I used my thermomix (as a steamer) on 70 degrees celcius, with water in the bottom, which made the temperature around 37 degrees in the varoma. This worked during the day, though I had to keep resetting it every hour.

Sometimes I kept the eggs in contact with my body. Overnight, I kept them in a fish tank with a desk lamp on them.

Eventually, I could hear the internal pipping and the external pipping had started. I knew this was the dangerous period, as without the humidity right, the ducklings would get 'shrink wrapped' and be unable to move. Being unable to move, they couldn't twist their umbilical cord and would bleed out if I tried to help them.

These ducklings had no hope of emerging alive, from what I read.

I figured, if the only option is certain death, anything is worth trying.

So, here is what I did:

Since there was the beginning of external pipping, I used this to peel off the outer shell, cracking it with my fingernails, bit by bit.

Under that, there is a thick, white, rubbery layer. Gently, slowly, peel this off in sections. Don't take it all off at once, in fact, for the bottom half, you can leave them together.

Under that, the final layer, will be either white - if it has dried out - or clear yellow. It is the consistency of mucus. If you dip your finger in water and rub it over this layer, the white will turn to clear yellow and you will see all the veins with blood. You will need re-moisten the area you are working on every few minutes as it dries out quickly.

Be careful not to drip any water in to the duckling's bill. This will likely drown it. Dip your finger in the water and rub it around, that way there isn't enough to present a risk.

* Here I should note to observe the area where the yolk is. If you see any yolk present, leave the duckling as is, until the yolk is absorbed. Use gloves or hand sanitiser whenever the duckling will be handled. This may take up to a day. Do not proceed until the yolk is gone.

The idea here is to make a hole, where the beak is. Be careful, as there is a vein on the left of the beak. Then slowly, ease that clear yellow layer over the duckling. You may cut between the veins if needed, but often you can just stretch it.

* If you cut a vein, press down on it to stop the bleeding. When it stops, leave the duckling for awhile. I had one duckling have a small bleed, so after stopping the bleeding,  I left it several hours and then restarted the process.

First clearing its leg (that is over its beak), then over the head.

Once you get to that point, you can hold the egg upside down, so gravity is assisting a little. The duckling will slowly pop out, still attached by the umbilical cord.

At this point, you can either leave it for awhile - it can now expand its lungs and breathe, while it is still getting its nutrients from the umbilical cord. Later, clamp the cord hard for one minute (with your finger, a peg, whatever you can come up with) and then snip it. Check that it is not bleeding and dab some hand sanitiser on the cord end.

The duckling will be tired and lay there for up to one day, sometimes two. After that, they come to 'life' and behave like any other duckling, doing all instinctual behaviours.

Make sure you put them in a brooder. I used a desk lamp in a small fish tank, with a towel in there for them to lay on. This needs to be changed daily. They just need to be warm, all the time, for the first couple of weeks.

I hope this guide helps - I know it is a lot of work and many people don't have the time and inclination to go to that much effort. However, for those that do, I wrote this guide for you - to show you that it CAN be done and you can save your ducklings' lives.


*I have assisted the hatching of the inital 6 ducklings and all are 2 months old and very healthy. I assisted 1 duckling from a subsequent hatch the same way and it is also surviving and currently 2 weeks old.

The despair over injustice

Still not feeling much different, I'm afraid.

I have become very interested in Aaron Swartz, the case and his life and achievements. I wonder if such an amazing person could actually kill themselves in a moment of hopelessness, or if the government killed him. It's probably easy enough to make a hanging look like a suicide - a lot easier than the two shots to the back of the head that another 'suicide' victim suffered.

In his final days, he was still talking excitedly to friends about business plans and projects he planned to do. Only in the last 24 hours, did his girlfriend think that he was in an altered mood, that she doesn't believe was depression.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/life-inside-the-aaron-swartz-investigation/273654/

What life was like for Aaron & Quinn during the investigation

http://tarensk.tumblr.com/post/42260548767/why-aaron-died#notes

The last few days, I have been learning about things like the Tiananmen square massacre and Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning and it's just depressing to think how often those on the side of truth and transparency have been silenced.

Restless

Well, that's a heck of a long time between posts! I'll try not to do that again :) 

Today, I feel so restless....like there are so many things wrong with the world that several lifetimes couldn't fix it.

It seems that you can either choose to be happy, by ignoring or accepting the wrong in the world - or you can dedicate your life to making the world a better place, which entails effort, loneliness, rejection and overwhelm. 

Things like starving people, corruption, war, poverty, violence, rape, slavery, murder....and yet we get distracted with technology, personal achievements and the next movie/iphone/kitchen appliance about to be released.  

I think it might be the curse of being a deep thinker and part of me wishes I wasn't - we all know those people that are bubbly and shallow - but fun- and it's nice to be around them now and again. They remind me of young children and animals and it's nice to watch creatures being playful.  

However, eventually you long for a deep conversation about something important - with someone that isn't going to look at you strangely when you bring up a topic. I suspect the smarter you are, the less frequently you encounter such a person. 

So, what can one person do to change the world for the better? 

I'm going to think about this for a bit and see what I can come up with. 

A busy birthday

It's my birthday tomorrow and I have been cooking up a storm!

I wanted to make my own checker board cake, it's currently cooling on racks. It will be three layers and the colours are pink, teal and purple.

I'm really looking forward to sharing it but I am not sure what to do for my birthday, whether to meet up with family or just have a quiet night at home with my family and best friend.

Chocolate muffins have also been made and going to get iced with chocolate ganache. I have jelly, creamed rice and probably custard to make as well. Having a thermomix makes it pretty easy.

Due to all this cooking, not much school work has been completed today but I'm going to rectify that after lunch.

A great benefit of home schooling is the flexibility of when and what days to do our work. If we are sick through the week, we often catch up on saturday.

I stayed up until 2 am this morning, catching up on washing and dishes that were neglected while Nathan was sick. He is fine now. I am tired though and looking forward to a nice sleep tonight....hopefully :)

Welcome

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Here I discuss whatever is on my mind, from home schooling, to animals, to finances, to children and anything else that pops up.

And soap, too. Why not? It's the name of the blog :)