Thoughts on hatching "old" eggs?

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Chickies2020

Chickies2020

In the Brooder
Apr 12, 2015
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So, USPS royally messed up my shipment of fertilized campbells duck eggs. Today is 3/12 and they were laid on 2/28... so about 13 days old. The seller said to set them big end up so the air sack settles in the right spot for 8 hours and to let them come to room temperature. They've been in the NW Pacific in a box for the last 10 days, so cool weather but not below freezing.

Thoughts on if any might hatch? I know its hard to say since shipping can be hard on them... are they too old?
 
I'm not an expert by any means, especially on ducks. But chicken eggs need rotated daily if they aren't placed in the incubator within about five or so days. The outlook doesn't look good on 13 day old eggs.

I ordered Cayuga eggs once and they took a few days to arrive and when they did they were stuck directly in our mailbox about a mile away with no call to the house given. 70% of the eggs were cracked or scrambled inside. I tried to hatch the ones that made it but the power went out while I was away and that was that :/

Good luck. I hope it works out.
 
Don't give up on them. I've got a two-week old dozen grocery store fertile eggs in the 'bator on day seven. Four are developing.

Some of your duck eggs might hatch.
 
Shipped eggs typically have a much lower hatch rate just due to the potential rough shipping and temperature fluctuations in transit, but it's always worth a try! 13 days old is not TOO terrible, but not great either. It's always best to incubate eggs no more than 7 days old, but up to 10 days old is also ok. After that the hatch rate does drop pretty quickly.

So basically, you'll probably have a low hatch rate, but you never know! Some eggs can be very resilient. Best to stick them in the incubator and see what happens. You should be able to see development by Day 7 of incubation. Good luck! And come back to tell us how it goes! :)
 
Last edited:
Thanks all! I decided to put them in the incubator and see what happens. I'll post up after I've candled on day 7 :)
 

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