Incubating please help

casie

In the Brooder
Jul 8, 2015
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My duck started sitting on her eggs a month ago, at the time she had 8 eggs I went on vacation and came home to 19 eggs. It turned out my other duck was laying a new egg in her nest every single day. My duck hatched one baby and when 2 days went by with out a new one she stopped. I built an incubator but the humidity is not very tightly controlled. The trouble is I don't know what day the eggs are since they all have different start days. I have only one incubator so I don't know how to incubate the eggs and do lock down even if I could tell when to do the lock down. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Some how today the one duck she hatched was killed in the yard so I really want to help these babies make it!
 
You might not have the problem you think you have. I went through a similar thing recently. I have commercial incubators, but I've heard you can easily get through this with homemade ones. You can tell something about the development of the others if you candle them, and they're probably going to be somewhat close together based on what you said. Embryos develop based on their incubation (including the duck setting), not when the eggs are laid. My Campbell recently sat on a clutch of 18 eggs and "finished" when 15 hatched. We hatched 2 of the others in an incubator, and the other wasn't viable.

Please let us know if you have any questions along the way. There are a lot of people here who can help you. I personally think lockdown is kind of overrated unless you're talking about stopping the turner/turning, but I do it anyway.
 
Well you can forget the word lock down. With one bator lock down doesn't apply. The way you will be able to tell when they are ready is when they dip. That means the air cell will fall to one side and will look slanted. You best bet is to maintain a good spot for the humidity. What is it at now and your bator did u put a fan in it? If not what do u have the temp at??

Once the air cell takes a dip, count three days. They dip three days before hatching.
 
I have candeled them and they are at all different stages the ones that looked like the picture of close to 28 days I stopped turning. My incubator stays at 99 to 100 but I have been trying to keep humidity at like 60 to 65 but so far it's been a little up and a little down. I don't have a fan. Yesterday I had one poke it's beak through. And I sat all day with it hopping it would make it and realities the urge to help it after reading many posts here. It was working hard and chirping and I went to take a shower, when I came back it was dead. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I really want to help these babies hatch.

I have one that is rocking so I'm hoping it will start to pip soon. I want to make sure this guy lives I have lost 3 now.. And one that was 4 days old. I don't know what could have happened. Any advice on the humidity setting for both incubating and hatching?
 
I have candeled them and they are at all different stages the ones that looked like the picture of close to 28 days I stopped turning. My incubator stays at 99 to 100 but I have been trying to keep humidity at like 60 to 65 but so far it's been a little up and a little down. I don't have a fan. Yesterday I had one poke it's beak through. And I sat all day with it hopping it would make it and realities the urge to help it after reading many posts here. It was working hard and chirping and I went to take a shower, when I came back it was dead. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I really want to help these babies hatch.

I have one that is rocking so I'm hoping it will start to pip soon. I want to make sure this guy lives I have lost 3 now.. And one that was 4 days old. I don't know what could have happened. Any advice on the humidity setting for both incubating and hatching?

You're okay, Casie. Don't panic. The temp is fine, and the humidity is fine for hatch. It's too high for the days about 3 days prior to hatch. You want to try to get that down to no more than 50%, and I do 40-45%. I think @Lacrystol does even lower than that.

When you said one of them poked the bill through, do you mean it pipped internally, meaning it broke through the internal membrane, or do you mean it broke through its shell?
 
I'm not sure what to to about the humidity because some of my eggs are really early like day 6 or 7 and some of them are piping. This litte guy broke through the shell and was trying to work it's way around but did not make it I wish I had helped
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I'm not sure what to to about the humidity because some of my eggs are really early like day 6 or 7 and some of them are piping. This litte guy broke through the shell and was trying to work it's way around but did not make it I wish I had helped
Casie, I don't know what went wrong with this one, but there might not have been anything you could have done. When a ducking is that far out, they don't typically just die as quickly as you're talking about unless something is wrong otherwise. I can speculate about what happened to that one based on that pic if that was the end state. What I would have done is chip away the shell around the neck, and I probably would have zipped the shell like I do with some of my Calls. What happened to that duckling isn't a normal hatch.

You said you built an incubator. Is there any chance you can make another one? I promise you that you will hatch some and you will lose some regardless what you do, for no reason you can figure out. I've had ducklings hatch on the turner, and I've had ducklings die in their shell on hatch day 10 minutes after I confirmed them to be fine.
 
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Woul building a second incubator be the best bet? I had 2 die in their shells that one last night and one the day before. I had a little one who was piping so I thought maybe my duck would keep sitting if she heard it. The duck took the egg right away but in the middle of the day I came out to find a dead baby with it's been half way out. So I decided not to try that again.
 
My duck is back on her nest full time with out her baby. I'm worries about giving her eggs back.. But I would like to see her have some babies. I think I'm really screwing this mess up, there is a lot of activity in her nest. The other girl duck lays a new egg in it every day, and my boy ducks are so fascinated with what she is doing. In wondering if they are breaking eggs. Would it be better to let the eggs be in the incubator or trying and get them back under mom and hope that she stays the course?
 

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