1st Incubator Success

[johnspillman]

My 10-month old female duck began laying eggs 5 months ago. She wasn't sitting on them, so after a week I began collecting the eggs to eat. 3 months ago she built a big nest and started sitting on the eggs, so I quit taking them. 2 months ago she hatched 5 of 15 eggs; one was weak and died in the nest the next day, but she had 3 strong ducklings that she was bringing to the pond on the second day. A predator must have taken one of those 3 from the pond. On the 3rd day, the last duckling hatched and because it was a little slower than the others, Mama rejected it. I took care of it and have reunited it with its siblings. I emptied her nest of the unhatched eggs, & she continued to lay an egg every day, but was ignoring them so after a week I put the 7 eggs into an incubator. From what I've read, the humidity should be 45-55% increasing to 64% the last week, Day 28 is Hatch Day, I should not try to help the eggs hatch unless necessary and if I do help, then stop if there's bleeding. I couldn't seem to raise the humidity above 44%, but I was excited waiting for Hatch Day, but nothing happened on Day 28 (last Fri.). I was concerned that something may have gone wrong and the next morning there didn't appear to be any progress. I noticed what looked like a drop of water on one of the eggs so I rubbed my thumb against it & it was a dent that the duck had tried to pip through. My thumb broke the shell there and I put it back in the incubator. For the next several hours, I kept checking for progress and breaking off more small pieces of that egg shell and a couple of other eggs that had those same dents on them. Then I saw some blood so I stopped. That night, the blood had dried & I could see the live duckling inside the shell so I left it in the incubator overnight. On Sunday morning (Day 30), no progress had been made, so I figured the lower humidity must have kept the shells too hard to pip through so I decided to help the first duckling out of its shell but being careful to not damage the membrane. The first duckling came out healthy with no problems. I was so excited that I quit obsessing over the incubator and when I checked again the next two that I had helped had unzipped and were outside the eggs. I had started helping the last four and felt that I was getting the hang of it when I damaged the membrane of the last egg and there was a lot of bleeding. I returned it to the incubator & Monday morning, one by one all 4 had hatched and were doing great and the first 3 were already eating, drinking and playing.The Mama is back on her nest atop 2 dozen eggs, so I'll put aside the incubator for a while.

 

[Jenbirdee]

My 10-month old female duck began laying eggs 5 months ago. She wasn't sitting on them, so after a week I began collecting the eggs to eat. 3 months ago she built a big nest and started sitting on the eggs, so I quit taking them. 2 months ago she hatched 5 of 15 eggs; one was weak and died in the nest the next day, but she had 3 strong ducklings that she was bringing to the pond on the second day. A predator must have taken one of those 3 from the pond. On the 3rd day, the last duckling hatched and because it was a little slower than the others, Mama rejected it. I took care of it and have reunited it with its siblings. I emptied her nest of the unhatched eggs, & she continued to lay an egg every day, but was ignoring them so after a week I put the 7 eggs into an incubator. From what I've read, the humidity should be 45-55% increasing to 64% the last week, Day 28 is Hatch Day, I should not try to help the eggs hatch unless necessary and if I do help, then stop if there's bleeding. I couldn't seem to raise the humidity above 44%, but I was excited waiting for Hatch Day, but nothing happened on Day 28 (last Fri.). I was concerned that something may have gone wrong and the next morning there didn't appear to be any progress. I noticed what looked like a drop of water on one of the eggs so I rubbed my thumb against it & it was a dent that the duck had tried to pip through. My thumb broke the shell there and I put it back in the incubator. For the next several hours, I kept checking for progress and breaking off more small pieces of that egg shell and a couple of other eggs that had those same dents on them. Then I saw some blood so I stopped. That night, the blood had dried & I could see the live duckling inside the shell so I left it in the incubator overnight. On Sunday morning (Day 30), no progress had been made, so I figured the lower humidity must have kept the shells too hard to pip through so I decided to help the first duckling out of its shell but being careful to not damage the membrane. The first duckling came out healthy with no problems. I was so excited that I quit obsessing over the incubator and when I checked again the next two that I had helped had unzipped and were outside the eggs. I had started helping the last four and felt that I was getting the hang of it when I damaged the membrane of the last egg and there was a lot of bleeding. I returned it to the incubator & Monday morning, one by one all 4 had hatched and were doing great and the first 3 were already eating, drinking and playing.The Mama is back on her nest atop 2 dozen eggs, so I'll put aside the incubator for a while.

wow and now you have lots of ducklings! nice story!

 

[johnspillman]

A week ago the Mama duck hatched 10 eggs. The next day she hatched another and again rejected it because it couldn't keep up with the others, so I'm taking care of that one now as well. I need to collect any more eggs that are laid now because I won't be able to support any more new ducks for a while.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yes take up all new laid eggs I do it daily as well. can we see some pictures of the little ones?