AWW! I probably would have kept all the finches too! I've never had one before, but they are cute and really pretty. How's the duck eggs? But oh yeah, ducks are just one of my favorite animlas in the world! My 2 favorite ducks that I've ever had are Jake and Topaz. They were sisters. We don't have them anymore. Topaz got killed by a dog and Jake just grieved herself so much that she died one day. They were like dogs, not ducks. They both would follow us around the yard! Here is a picture of them....they were muscovies... Topaz Jake This is Jake's only baby she ever had and his name is JRose. He looked just like his mom! Here is one of Topaz's daughters. She had 12 babies. Her name is Diego This duck was the love of Jake's life. He was JRose's daddy. His name is Snowflake,,, This duck is Shadow and he was Topaz's boyfriend. He was the daddy to all of her babies. This is JR. She looks just like her daddy, Shadow.. This is Sue. (we thought he was a girl at first, so that's where he got the name --LOL (Sue and Shadow are brothers. I can't belive it because they look so different... Here is Jamoca; he's a mallard Jamoca's best bud was Troy and I still have her...here she is... Well, those are some of the ducks I've had....but my favorites were Jake and Topaz. I've had about 25 different ducks and they have all been special to me, but Jake, Topaz, Sue, Shadow, Snowflake, Troy and Jamoca will always be the main ones that made me fall in love with all ducks. I use to call them 'The fantastic 7' Well, I hope I haven't taken over your post here! LOL I just got to sending pictures and thought I'd go ahead and show you some of my favorites. Talk to you later :) Genny

It's been a while since the last post on this subject but I am in need of some imformation regarding a chicken hatching duck eggs. I bought twelve fertile mixed breed duck eggs off of ebay hoping to get my broody jersey giant hen to maybe hatch some out. All's fine so far; she's doing her job (it's only been a few days). She's four years old and has never even seen a rooster only her bunk mate she was raised with (a red sex-link). what I need to know first is why is she exibiting this behavior now and to such an extreme that she's been in the nesting box almost constantly for the last month and a half. Is she going to quit on me before any of the six eggs can hatch? The second thing I need to know is how successful am I going to be hatching out any of the remaining six in my homemade incubator when I am having trouble maintaining a constant temperature and humidity at least the first three days (I think I got a handle on it now) but has the damage already been done (too soon to candle). What are my chances as opposed to Isabel's (the hen) in getting any duck babies to hatch? Oh, one more thing about Isabel, she is a free range hen who would only come in the coop to eat and put herself to bed at nightfall and all I had to do is be there to close the door. Now she acts broody and strange when she once was a chatty, personable, happy girl. Was this the wrong tact to take, giving her fertile eggs? The reason I choose duck eggs is I didn't want to take the chance of getting a rooster (don't like 'em).

I let a broody (chicken) hen incubate my turkey eggs. This also made raising them a lot easier since she taught them to eat. When I raised my first group of turkeys (from MMM) I had the worst time with them. Getting them to eat was a nightmare and I was losing at least one a day. From now on, if I ever decide to raise turkeys again I will definitely let a chicken do the work. Interestingly, after my turkeys were about 8 weeks old, my broody turkey hen adopted them and she has been with them for well over 2 months now. Much better mommies than the chickens who seem to tire of their brood after 4-6 weeks (in my experience anyway).

I tried hatching out quail eggs from an incubator several times mostly unsuccessfully. I did hear that humidity is important. Also I heard you should NOT touch the eggs with your hands or fingers. I had numerous chicks that couldn't make it out of the egg, and also numerous times I tried to help them out of the egg, and they were never healthy. I also had quit a number that hatched, but had deformed legs and couldn't walk right. It was very heartbreaking. I did have 2 occassions where the hen actually did hatch out a couple babies (out of many eggs) and they are the cutest things on earth. I call them bumblebees! Even the other quail in the pen would sit on them to keep them warm. I really enjoyed them. I don't have them anymore and do miss them.