Died in the egg. Please help diagnose.

[QuackerJackFarms]

I'm posting this new thread to hopefully get your opinions on what went wrong during the hatching process. This egg has been peeping and rocking since Monday, gradually slowing down. It never was able to pip on it's own. Just now I opened it up. It has gone to ducky heaven.

What I saw was this... It looks like I put the duck in a ziplock baggie and then sucked ALL the air out. (or put it in a Space bag or Kryovac). Other than that it's moist in places. It's beak is exposed and not in any membrane. However looking directly above the beak I can see that where it would have pipping, the shell isn't even compromised. In fact I'm not really sure how it was able to reach the shell at all.

Is this a humidity issue? I mean that seems obvious to me, but maybe there's another reason out there. My humidity has been consistently at 55-60 with the exception of a week ago when I had issues on one day keeping it up and it dropped to 40-45. When I noticed I bumped it back up and was able to add sponges and finally it leveled out back at 55-60.
At lock down I bumped it up to 60-65.

Any advice or comments are appreciated! Thanks.

 

[GrannyCarol]

I answered on the other thread, but basically, yes, this is a humidity issue. If you can keep it at 60-65% during incubation and 70-75% at hatch, you'll have better luck. Also, I read the other thread and saw you are worried over the other eggs. I wouldn't toss them, or break them open until day 30 at least, unless they stink, then you want them out of there. I've hatched eggs on day 32 that were fine, they may just be behind for some reason. I find the ducks hatch over 2 -4 days in one batch regularly for me. Usually my incubator tends to be low and dry - last summer I ran it way hot (bad thermometer) and still managed to hatch a few from the corners of the incubator.

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

Quote:
Thanks Granny. I'm not touching the others at all. They haven't shown me any indication that they are alive. I just hate that I couldn't save the other one. But that's okay.. Not loosing sleep over it.

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

I want to add that the other 6 eggs, are fully formed, BUT none of them ever broke into the air sac. Thought that might be something important. Is that still a humidity issue?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I was just wondering what was going on, so sorry about the duckling. I hope that there is still hope for the others.