What are the chances my duck egg is a moulard? And other eggy insanity...

[New duck mommy 2021]

https://vimeo.com/887400340?share=copy

To me baby looks great
Egg is filling in nice and air cell is a good size
Any time now you will start to see shadowing along the lower part as baby pushes on the air cell
I would say 24-48 hours to see that
May also see egg rocking in that time
The air cell will dip forward on one side make sure that’s facing up
Could be late due to lower heat or baby could be 1/2 Muscovy and be on time

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

Is that your 4 ducklings from Metzer Farms I can hear in the background? What sort of ducklings are they? I love your story!

Good luck with Bobby. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Hi Ruth! Yes, those are our new ducklings! The post office called 10 minutes to 9:00 this morning and we picked them up immediately! They are the sweetest little things. We have one jumbo pekin (my husband named her Mae), one blue Swedish (my son named her Dashi {his favorite character in his favorite show called Octonauts}), one magpie (daughter named her Basil), and one buff Orpington (oldest daughter named her Fern). They arrived happy and cheeping and ready for water and food! They are happily settled in their brooder now and napping under their Brinsea EcoGlo thingie.

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

To me baby looks great
Egg is filling in nice and air cell is a good size
Any time now you will start to see shadowing along the lower part as baby pushes on the air cell
I would say 24-48 hours to see that
May also see egg rocking in that time
The air cell will dip forward on one side make sure that’s facing up
Could be late due to lower heat or baby could be 1/2 Muscovy and be on time

Thank you, thank you!! Your comment makes me feel so much better about everything! I will absolutely keep this thread updated as soon as the action starts!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Don't forget to post pictures of your newly arrived ducklings too. We love baby pictures.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Don't forget to post pictures of your newly arrived ducklings too. We love baby pictures.

I second this !!

 

[ruthhope]

I second this !!

I third it!

 

[ruthhope]

I hadn't heard the term moulard before and so I looked it up:

"The mulard (or moulard) is a hybrid between two different genera of domestic duck: the domestic Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata domestica) and the domestic duck (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus), derived from the wild mallard. American Pekins and other domestic ducks are most commonly used to breed mulards due to the breed's high meat production. Like many interspecific F1 hybrids, mulards are sterile, giving them the nickname mule ducks. While it is possible to produce mulards naturally, artificial insemination is used more often with greater success. [1]

The term mulard or moulard is generally reserved for offspring where the parental drake is a Muscovy and the duck is a Pekin. When the drake is a Pekin, the offspring tend to be smaller and are called hinnies."

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

Here are our beautiful new babies!!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are precious

 

[ruthhope]

They are lovely little fluffies!

Nice to see you are using that washable, textured shelf lining for the floor of your brooder. That is what I use in mine as it is excellent to stop little legs splaying