It ’s likely that no story from Otterridge Creek has pull together more exclaiming of surprise than the one of a volaille dream up a duckling . “ What ? A real duckling ? ! ”
I used to pull out my phone and show off a brusque TV clip of the dedicated Black Australorp with her fuzzy yellow - billed babe quack behind her . It was extremely satisfying .
I ’m sure many a backyard enthusiast has wondered about the theory of place orchis from differing species under their wistfully look sitter . Perhaps your farm is overflowing with spring wench and does n’t need any more , but another hen is set up , so can you give her duck nut ? Pheasant eggs ? Turkeys ?
It can be done , if the circumstances are correct and you make a fewallowances for natural differences . Some thing are only common sensation . You would n’t want to put quail egg under a goose , or frailty versa .
I ’ve had some success with cross - speciesbrooding , and I ’m well-chosen to apportion a few of my war stories and tidbits of information I ’ve make along the way .
Size
One of the first considerations for brooding is sizing . demand yourself these questions :
Conversely , is the surrogate female parent so self-aggrandising that an accidental step onto the chick would stamp out it ? To fend off excessive complication , it ’s probably best to match birds with eggs that are close to their normal egg size .
Incubation Periods
The standard chicken incubation cycle is a precise 21 days , or exactly 3 weeks . As poultry enthusiasts know , many consecrate setting hen hen will rig much longer if chicks do n’t seem on meter .
If the incubation temperature is colder than the natural female parent ’s body temp , brood will be delayed . If it ’s fond , hatching will be accelerated . Either option tends to induce deformities or lower hatch rate in the progeny . ( These are common problems with tyro cognitive process of household electronic incubators . )
Read more : Is your brood hen hen too young to hatch orchis ?
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The Die-Hard Broody Hen
Last summer was busybodied , to say the least . reflective after setting hen started countersink in the barn , we were raising hogs , the cows were getting out frequently and , of row , full - meter off - the - farm job all around . Since we pile up egg daily and have to specify aside eggs for our hens to set , it ’s not very surprising that we miss give one new broody a clutch of nut for brooding .
“ Did you give that new broody bollock today ? ”
“ Ah , no , I forgot ! ”
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So it went , for about two weeks . I thought ruefully that I ’d missed the window , and putting eggs under her after two weeks of mise en scene would be a waste . They ’d likely die when she left the nest .
tight - forrad two month and that biddy was still setting !
Of of course , I felt up tremendous . So , when I go into the local farm - supply entrepot on Sept. 1 and heard small chirp speech sound , I gravitated over that way to investigate .
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Some young Pekin duckling were contentedly grouped together in a brooder . I knelt down to enquire . While I do n’t usually care getting chicks from provender memory board , this option could possibly solve my job . I could give that poor brood hen hen a mates of baby to mother , then harvest duck centre in a few months .
Besides , we had a large waterlogged pond sphere that was n’t being utilized and was the perfect duck habitat . It would be a win all around .
One of the fund employee discover me studying the duckling and quipped : “ Do you need them all?!”Without missing a beat , I replied : “ What discount would that get me ? ” After all , it was already frigid outside . No one wanted to provoke chick that late in the yr , not even me .
She kneel down to attend into the brooder . After a second ’s consideration she spoke again .
“ Half - off ? ” she postulate .
“ I ’ll take ’em , ” I said .
So , instead of just two ducklings for my long - term broody biddy , I leave alone with 19 . Oh , well — I’m a sucker for a skillful bargain . I ’d just have to mark up a supplemental heat lamp .
I got the ducklings home and lay up their incubation rotary inside one of the barn stalls . Heat lamp , waterer , provender , bedding material — check .
I had a wispy Bob Hope that I ’d put one or two of the duckling underneath the mama in her nest , she ’d bear them , then I ’d move her into the stall to fire all 19 . What an idyllic dream human beings I had created . Ha .
Long story short , mommy and baby firmly rejected each other , with mama pecking and baby fleeing . I was left to elevate the ducklings , and mama continued sitting on her nest for another full month . ( Yeah , I should ’ve just given her eggs — four times over . )
The longer you raise doll , the better idea you ’ll have of how long each individual is uncoerced to set .
Read more : Check out these promiscuous plans for a DIY chick brooder !
The Turkey Mama
Wishing to expand my poultry process , I purchased a dainty bent of Midget White turkey poults from a good - calibre backyard breeding programme . We kept a gentility twosome , and the next year I watched thirstily as the untried hen determine a generous clutch . The turkeys were make a disjoined upbringing playpen to help brooding go smoothly .
When hatch day came , I was beguiled to see one of the healthy yellow poults break away out to greet this brave unexampled world . Knowing that the biddy had set somewhere between 13 to 16 eggs in the hold , I predict a enceinte hachure .
I started preplanning the cut-rate sale of Thanksgiving turkeys and the growth of my slew . Not wanting to raise up the new category , I would only go into the pen briefly to replenish food and piddle , then exit .
The vernal gobbler strutted and the new mama huddled over her nest . I ’d wait until mama and babies commence traipsing about the barnyard before counting the hatchling .
Several day elapse , and the turkey hen delay on her nest . I thought it was left over that every prison term I go to the b , the poults needed to be huddle together . After three day , I saw the tom climb on top of the hen and realized something must be ill-timed . Going straightaway over to the nest , I move the mama turkey hen against her protests . To my horror , the stench of flat , dead baby greeted me .
The crosshatch had indeed been successful . But the mounting gobbler was too cloggy for the mama ’s ramification to living . Not one single poult outlast .
I cleaned up the horrible mess , and move the dud hen out of the playpen to distract her . However , the hen immediately put up a new nest on some chicken eggs she found . I was n’t trusted how that would turn out , so I buy some fresh joker egg from a neighbor for her . Nurlan Mammadzada / Shutterstock
doubly , the hogs get out and ate the eggs from underneath her , yet still she sat , brooding . I finally gave her a flyspeck clutch bag of three chicken eggs . Would n’t you do it it , two hatched ! ( Yeah , I locked up the tomcat this time . )
So , I had a turkey biddy heighten chicken biddy . Right around that time I lost a in effect broody hen chicken hen , leaving her two chicks motherless . The orphaned chick were only a few Clarence Shepard Day Jr. older than the turkey ’s .
Might it be possible to get her to take over these extra babies ?
I carry the two motherless chicks to the turkey country , snuggled warmly against my torso . When I arrived , the turkey mama and chicks were calmly stepping about , completely unaware they were n’t at all tie in . Well , I thought , “ here goes ” and put the other chicks down .
Now it should be note that biddy hatched by a living mama , foster or not , memorize the speech sound of their mother ’s voice . That ’s how they stay in their own little kinfolk cliques out in the barnyard , and conversely the mothers know their own babies .
However , occasionally you run into a mama — whether razzing , sheep , moo-cow , etc.—that but loves nurturing any offspring , her own or others ’ . Such was my hope for the turkey hen . This was her first ( well , 2nd , technically ) crosshatch , and I was n’t sure of her mothering preferences .
After all , she was raising chickens !
The orphaned chicks , pick up the sounds of their cousins ’ cheeping , escape towards the eclectic little family . For one abbreviated here and now all was good . Then the bomb sashay her head , take the fresh chicks . Peck ! The little yellowed chick went down . I hurry to snatch it up but could n’t seize fast enough . mickle ! A 2nd time . Poor small lamb .
I cuddled the yellow biddy against my chest of drawers and went to rescue his littermate , when all of a sudden I see something astonishing : The turkey biddy had accepted the black chick , because it looked like the ones she dream up !
I tried to sneak the yellow-bellied chick in again , to the same event . Nope . She would take the grim one , but not the light one . I witness this completely ironic , because her own biologic baby had been 100 percent yellow !
All this to say , expect the unexpected with cross - species surrogacy .
Moisture
If you determine to rig waterfowl egg underneath a Edwin Herbert Land shuttlecock for incubation , such as a crybaby , recall that mama duck typically get off of the nest to swim once or double per day . They climb back in on top of their eggs with damp feathers , increasing the moisture during the incubation full stop .
In the example of my Black Australorp hen with the duckling , I had prove to counterbalance for this difference by adding water to the nest occasionally . I ’m pretty sure I overdid it , though , since only one of the eggs think of .
Moisture content during brooding is authoritative , and specific to each coinage . If the moisture is too blue , the air space inside the egg will be excessively large , the interior of the testis will be too dry , and the chick will not beable to turn around during the hatching summons . If the wet capacity is too mellow , then the atmosphere pocket will be too lowly and the chick wo n’t have enough oxygen to last through the exertion of hatching .
In either case , the chick will die . seek to match alike foster mothers - to - eggs for this reason . Andrey Abryutin / Shutterstock
It’s a Risk
Bear in psyche that successful animal breeding is complicated enough , and ill-tempered - species brooding is always a risk . Occasionally , however , surrogacy might be the best pick available .
For example , it seems French Guinea hens are chronically poor — albeit very determined — female parent outside of their aboriginal desert habitat . Hence , it ’s vulgar here in the extreme north for chickens to be used for setting and lift guinea John Keats instead .
chicken have a more wet - resistant plume structure and substantial brooding inherent aptitude , usually raising the natural selection pace of those cute little camouflaged cheepers .
You ’ll be glad to know that , as of this writing , last year ’s guinea keats have finally figured out they are n’t chickens .
This article primitively come along in the May / June 2022 military issue ofChickensmagazine .
