ducks late hatching, please help!

mandarin1 said:

I bought some mandarin duck eggs and had them shipped.  When I received them they all had intact air cells, no cracks, nothing.  I let them settle for a day before putting them into the incubater and my humidity and temperature have been consistent  (day 1-25 temp at 99.5 and humidity at 55-60% according to three thermometers and hygrometers that were calibrated)  I hand turned them 5 times a day and then 3 days ago put them on lockdown (temp. 98.5 and humidity around 75%).  Today is day 29 and they still have not pipped and from what I can tell have not internally pipped, but still see movement in a couple of the eggs and hard to see movement in the others.  When I candled them to see if they were still alive they look more like a candled egg on day 21 or 22, I can still see distinct veins and a somewhat small air cell, my questions are if it is normal for them to be late, if it has anything to do with the fact that they were shipped and maybe this is why they are late,  should I start turning them and lower humidity so they get a larger air cell, let them be for a couple more days or should I try to put a small hole in the air cell to assist hatching?  This is my first time incubating and we spent quite a bit of money on the eggs and I hate for them to die, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

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mandarin1 said:

I bought some mandarin duck eggs and had them shipped.  When I received them they all had intact air cells, no cracks, nothing.  I let them settle for a day before putting them into the incubater and my humidity and temperature have been consistent  (day 1-25 temp at 99.5 and humidity at 55-60% according to three thermometers and hygrometers that were calibrated)  I hand turned them 5 times a day and then 3 days ago put them on lockdown (temp. 98.5 and humidity around 75%).  Today is day 29 and they still have not pipped and from what I can tell have not internally pipped, but still see movement in a couple of the eggs and hard to see movement in the others.  When I candled them to see if they were still alive they look more like a candled egg on day 21 or 22, I can still see distinct veins and a somewhat small air cell, my questions are if it is normal for them to be late, if it has anything to do with the fact that they were shipped and maybe this is why they are late,  should I start turning them and lower humidity so they get a larger air cell, let them be for a couple more days or should I try to put a small hole in the air cell to assist hatching?  This is my first time incubating and we spent quite a bit of money on the eggs and I hate for them to die, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

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mandarin1 said:

I stopped seeing movement on day 32, I'm pretty sure I lost all six of them.  I'm heartbroken about the entire situation, I've read everywhere that they hatch on day 28 or 29, but from a couple people said they hatch on day 34-36, I'm not sure which is true, but even with being extremely detailed about the humidity and temp. I still lost them.   I was told on day 30 from a waterfowl farm to put them back into incubating conditions and start turning again since they hatch between days 34-36, I did this and then on day 32 there was no more movement.

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mandarin1 said:

I stopped seeing movement on day 32, I'm pretty sure I lost all six of them. I'm heartbroken about the entire situation, I've read everywhere that they hatch on day 28 or 29, but from a couple people said they hatch on day 34-36, I'm not sure which is true, but even with being extremely detailed about the humidity and temp. I still lost them. I was told on day 30 from a waterfowl farm to put them back into incubating conditions and start turning again since they hatch between days 34-36, I did this and then on day 32 there was no more movement.

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nchls school said:

It may be that people are confusing mandarin ducks with muscovey ducks.  Muscovey eggs do take 35 days-mandarin eggs, I think, take 28 days.  While I have raised muscovey ducks I have not raised mandarins so possibly I am wrong on mandarin incubation time.

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