Thursday, February 21, 2013

Reving Up the Incubators


I went to visit the Mother Duck and was pleased to see that she had a few of her incubators running.

"Mother Duck" is the amazing woman who started the NH/VT Silver Appleyard Preservation Project last year and gave me my 2 beloved Appleyard Ducks.

This year the plan is to hatch more eggs and spread the ducklings to new owners near and far.

Her home is filled with Ag Art and lots of chicken stuff.

 

 She set 2 of her Buff Goose eggs in the incubator yesterday to test the fertility.



She has her 20 egg incubator warmed up and ready to put some duck eggs in it.



As a dedicated preservationist she is traveling down to Florida to take a sex identification class so she can differentiate between male and female ducklings at a very young age (2 days old).

This will eliminate all the guessing that we went through last year.

My plan is to find 2 female Appleyards to bring home to my boys and...

Mother Duck is letting me borrow a small incubator to hatch a few eggs out myself to help increase the rate of hatch this year.

All the 2012 female ducklings are now beautiful adult egg laying ducks, many with handsome drakes in their flock so there will be lots of different egg sources this year.

Mother Duck purchased Silver Appleyard eggs from all over the USA last year, so we have a very diverse genetic population to chose from for this spring.

I will keep you all posted on the progress of this unique project.


Are any of you planning to raise some minor breed flowl or livestock this year?

Got an incubator ?  What kind ?
~

14 comments:

  1. Oh I miss having chicks. They are so adorable and I loved raising them. No plans to get back into it for now anyways. Have my hands full with the cattle at this time. B

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  2. Oh I miss chicks I loved raising them. I have no plans at this time of getting back into that as I am busy with the cattle and I find the older I get the less I seem to want to commit too:) B

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  3. This sounds like such a cool project. I hope you guys are really successful.

    http://heidiswanderings.blogspot.com/

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  4. That is so exciting! We use to have ducks and chickens but we had to give them away for our last move. I am praying that we will be staying in this location for a while. I really want to get more ducks and chickens. It is one of the things on my very slow going "TO-DO" list. New follower here from the Thumping Thursday blog hop.

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  5. If you're going to travel for work, Florida is the place to go (my favorite place to be). :)

    Good luck w/everything. I'm visiting today from Thursday's Favorite Things.

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  6. This is really cool, can't wait to see the ducklings when they hatch! I'm planning to let one of my Buff Orpington hens sit this year. I've never hatched eggs before, always bought chicks, so it is something new for me.

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  7. That sounds like a fascinating hobby--unfortunately living in an apartment one I could never attempt! I can just hear my neighbors now--

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  8. I'm hoping to find someone who can supply me with chicks that will grow up and lay olive-colored eggs. And a couple of baby goats. Then if I catch my husband in an especially good mood, maybe he'll say yes to a few alpaca?

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  9. That is very cool. How interesting. Thanks for linking up with Thirsty for Thursday.

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  10. My son hatched out some ducklings 2 years ago. One is an imprint duck and lives in the house (with a diaper - you can buy them on the internet). Ducks are fun! Thanks for sharing this at what to do Weekends. Linda

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  11. Oh wow - all of this is so cool! I would love to see something that I watched over for weeks hatch and come to life. I remember when I was younger I tried to 'hatch' an egg in my dresser drawer using a desk lamp and an egg. I learned about it in elementary school and almost set my clothes on fire before my m

    I'm stopping by from Create with Joy's Friendship Friday Linky. Have a great weekend!

    http://artpark78.com/blog1other discovered it.

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  12. Hi Lovely, I'm your newest follower from Thumping Thursday from Blog hop. I love your Awesome blog!

    Feel free to visit & follow my blog @ www.revampspunkyrena.com

    xoxo
    Rena

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  13. Is it still possible to get some silver appleyards through this program ?

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    Replies
    1. John, send me an email and I can give you some details.
      tailgaitfarm at aol .com

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