Incubator Problems :(

So now I'm on my forth batch of eggs and with the other 3 I got no babies at all. I just opened an egg a bit because it was overdue. The babie is alive but the yoke looks way to big to hatch yet. I covered the hole with tape and dampened the membrane egg is now back in the bator any advise?

The egg u opened did it start pipping? If I was u I would leave the hole open bcos the duckling probably already started breathing externally. Judging from what u say if its overdue and still a lot of yolk it sounds like a temp problem. Humidity is most needed at time of hatching. U said its ur fourth batch and no babies how much eggs are we speaking about here? Did u candle them after a week in the bator to check for fertility? Some more info would be nice to resolve ur problem.

There was no pipping at all. In my last batch the last egg i opened was alive so I wet the membrane with a cutip and warm water wrapped it in a damp paper towel and plased it back in the bator. Then wet the membrane every few hours and talked to the baby. Its yoke also was to big at day 30 or 31 and never piped. A few days latr it died thou the yoke did seem to shrink a bit and I burried it in my backyard. The temp has always been at 99.5 degrees and usually turned twice to three times a day because odd numbers are better and turned by hand and misted with water at the final turning of the day. I candle at day 7-10 and once a week there after until lockdown. If no signs of hatching at all by day 30 I perform the float test and candle if eggs are still alive I give them one more day before making a artificial viewing hole. I have read all about assisted hatchigs shrinked wrapping,malpositioning and helping to much to soon. In all I have done 5 batches one with a 2nd grade class all in all about 50+ eggs or so and no babies. The parents I raised from babies and I have lots of eggs two girls are sitting now and are do soon. Sry for the long post.

I still think it is a temperature problem. Maybe u should get a mercury thermometer and check it against ur bator temp. Make sure the bator is calibrated properly. At this rate loosing all those ducklings is going to start to be very depressing.

I've used the little giant with a turner on quail eggs. the two by the turner still hatched, so you should be ok.

Thanks, and yea losing every single egg the past several months is very depessing.

So duckman I just got up to the most welcome surprise ever. A DUCKLING! I had no idea I thought they all had perished. The imprinting cuddling had commenced.

Batgirl7875 said:

So duckman I just got up to the most welcome surprise ever. A DUCKLING! I had no idea I thought they all had perished. The imprinting cuddling had commenced.

Click to expand...

So miss I think u main problem is u need some more patience...lol. If all the conditions are perfect ur ducklings will hatch no need to help them out of the egg. So here is a little treat for ur patience...







The last image shows where the duckling turned in the egg and unzipped itself no need to help it. I just held the whole thing up to take a proper pic. Enjoy.

I have used my sons little giant with egg turner. To stay consistent, I had to add an extra inch of foam around it on the outside.

When I was hatching coturnix I tried to use the increased humidity for the end. All I did was drown them in the shell. I had 1 hatch. I quit and went back to leaving the humidity alone at the end, and got back to my +95% hatch.