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Yes, they have grit. An entire cob? They will be able to pull the kernels off it? It sounds... optimistic as they don't have sharp beaks like chickens but hey worth a try. The adults are getting individual whole kernels. The 1-month-olds also have some starter crumble but not as their main...

Hey friends - at what age is it OK for ducklings to try eating whole corn kernels? They have been eating grains for a while but not corn and not raw; they got cooked rice, barley, millet... Asking of course for our month old ones, not the ones that have only recently been hatched this past...

Thank you @Miss Lydia! I figure it's true for dogs as it is for humans: "getting old is no fun but it beats the alternative." We hope a good number of the newborn ducks turn out to be ladies so we can reliably have a 10-piece box daily for sale and a couple eggs more for our use. Maybe we'll...

Final duckling report. Not super final because the young ones still have to make it through the first couple of weeks but here goes. - The one in egg #9 is sadly dead, all tangled up and wrapped, similar to what happened to the majority in the first round - The one in egg #8 had to be helped a...

One more duckling appeared by morning (it's 7:42 AM here). We still hear peeping from the remaining eggs and will check them individually and maybe enlarge the holes if we see that some are struggling to get out. Yesterday's four look like they gained +50% in size overnight :)They are now...

Here we go. 4 fluffies now going in a grape barrel under a heat plate. 5 eggs remain, 4 have pipped, 1 has not and we're not hearing anything from it (peeping, pecking, bumping around) unlike the others. If we manage to get +4 we'll be very happy. But of course it would be a great joy to have...

#3 is out of the shell... hopefully we can keep up the good results! Is it customary for the already hatched ducklings to "groom" the one that's trying to pull itself out of the shell? (Are they just going "oh look food"?)

And here is the new setup for the first-generation ducklings. For safety they are moved to the garage in their big wooden apple crate overnight. They are now 4 weeks old, their wings have grown noticeably (not such penguins anymore), we can see the stems of the large feathers and their breasts...

9 eggs in the machine ready to hatch any day now. Heard peeping at night, was surprised to find no ducklings in the morning. Found 5 eggs with attempts at breaking the (very hard) shells. Made emergency holes (couple of mm just to let the air flow and encourage more attempts). Ducklings peeping...

Using a gardening water spray bottle on the eggs, like these:

We hear knock-knock from the eggs. Switched to lockdown. Humidity to 65%, temp to 37 C. Non-slip bathroom rug instead of the rotation thingy.

I can't decide on the spraying either - but it's only round 2, it will take some time before I can say now I've got some relevant experience and can really decide.

Incubator round #2 progress: Of the 9 remaining eggs, ALL seem in much better shape since I dropped humidity from originally 45% to 35% for several days. Also been cooling and spraying daily (since day 15 or so). Air sacs large and we can see movement in every egg. Some (3) have air sacs which...

Kind of - they are outside in their big wooden crate with the adult flock around them and they can see each other through the sides. They have grown so much now that instead of the crate they will be getting their own little grass area fenced on the sides and top by some dense plastic netting...

The little ones are growing... Achievements unlocked: - hop onto heating plate (and leave a present) - jump out of a tall cardboard box - growing feathers all over the body

That would make the most sense but I can't find anything on them with Google in a continental Europe context.

Does anybody have an idea what Ancona ducks are called in Europe? (German? French?) @WannaBeHillBilly ? ... I don't seem to find anything :(

Just WildChild would do fine :)

In our round 2 in the incubator, it is now day 18 and when candling we saw that one more egg fell back along the way and stopped developing. Contents just floating around, no veins visible anymore. The remaining 9 look really good though. Following our own and a friend's hatching experience we...