Incubating please help

[casie]

My duck started sitting on her eggs a month ago, at the time she had 8 eggs I went on vacation and came home to 19 eggs. It turned out my other duck was laying a new egg in her nest every single day. My duck hatched one baby and when 2 days went by with out a new one she stopped. I built an incubator but the humidity is not very tightly controlled. The trouble is I don't know what day the eggs are since they all have different start days. I have only one incubator so I don't know how to incubate the eggs and do lock down even if I could tell when to do the lock down. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Some how today the one duck she hatched was killed in the yard so I really want to help these babies make it!

 

[JadeComputerGal]

You might not have the problem you think you have. I went through a similar thing recently. I have commercial incubators, but I've heard you can easily get through this with homemade ones. You can tell something about the development of the others if you candle them, and they're probably going to be somewhat close together based on what you said. Embryos develop based on their incubation (including the duck setting), not when the eggs are laid. My Campbell recently sat on a clutch of 18 eggs and "finished" when 15 hatched. We hatched 2 of the others in an incubator, and the other wasn't viable.

Please let us know if you have any questions along the way. There are a lot of people here who can help you. I personally think lockdown is kind of overrated unless you're talking about stopping the turner/turning, but I do it anyway.

 

[Lacrystol]

You're okay, Casie. Don't panic. The temp is fine, and the humidity is fine for hatch. It's too high for the days about 3 days prior to hatch. You want to try to get that down to no more than 50%, and I do 40-45%. I think @Lacrystol does even lower than that.

When you said one of them poked the bill through, do you mean it pipped internally, meaning it broke through the internal membrane, or do you mean it broke through its shell?

Temp is not ok, she has no fan, so it needs to be higher around 101-102.

Humidity needs to be around 50 -55 ONLY because she has no clue of the due dates of each egg and from what I understand there are many eggs in there with different due dates.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

She may reject them..

I agree with Lacrystol. It's fine to try that with very close supervision, but you'll likely be disappointed. Ducks don't know their own ducklings because the ducklings come from the eggs that duck laid. They know "their" babies because they communicate with them, and the babies communicate back, while the duck is setting on them. That's why ducks will accept ducklings from eggs of other ducks. You might say they know the "voices" of their own babies. You must not take your eyes off them for a few seconds if you put them in a brooder with her. She will likely attack them, and bad things can happen very quickly in that situation, especially if she's brooding "her own" little ones at the same time. She'll see the new ones as a threat to those.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

If you can fence her in I think that's your best bet.

I just really can't agree with that. You can't force a duck to set on a nest, at least not in any way I've ever heard of. That might just result in making her angry or depressed. That's why a lot of us incubate, especially in cases we know the ducks to refuse to go broody or to not be reliable setters.

 

[Amiga]

Take a look at the 2015 broody duck thread - there should be help there.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/964941/old-fashion-broody-duck-thread-2015-edition

Ask the people who post there - I haven't ever done any hatching, just been reading posts.

@Lacrystol ?

 

[Lacrystol]

Well you can forget the word lock down. With one bator lock down doesn't apply. The way you will be able to tell when they are ready is when they dip. That means the air cell will fall to one side and will look slanted. You best bet is to maintain a good spot for the humidity. What is it at now and your bator did u put a fan in it? If not what do u have the temp at??

Once the air cell takes a dip, count three days. They dip three days before hatching.

 

[casie]

I have candeled them and they are at all different stages the ones that looked like the picture of close to 28 days I stopped turning. My incubator stays at 99 to 100 but I have been trying to keep humidity at like 60 to 65 but so far it's been a little up and a little down. I don't have a fan. Yesterday I had one poke it's beak through. And I sat all day with it hopping it would make it and realities the urge to help it after reading many posts here. It was working hard and chirping and I went to take a shower, when I came back it was dead. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I really want to help these babies hatch.

I have one that is rocking so I'm hoping it will start to pip soon. I want to make sure this guy lives I have lost 3 now.. And one that was 4 days old. I don't know what could have happened. Any advice on the humidity setting for both incubating and hatching?

 

[JadeComputerGal]

I have candeled them and they are at all different stages the ones that looked like the picture of close to 28 days I stopped turning. My incubator stays at 99 to 100 but I have been trying to keep humidity at like 60 to 65 but so far it's been a little up and a little down. I don't have a fan. Yesterday I had one poke it's beak through. And I sat all day with it hopping it would make it and realities the urge to help it after reading many posts here. It was working hard and chirping and I went to take a shower, when I came back it was dead. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I really want to help these babies hatch.

I have one that is rocking so I'm hoping it will start to pip soon. I want to make sure this guy lives I have lost 3 now.. And one that was 4 days old. I don't know what could have happened. Any advice on the humidity setting for both incubating and hatching?

You're okay, Casie. Don't panic. The temp is fine, and the humidity is fine for hatch. It's too high for the days about 3 days prior to hatch. You want to try to get that down to no more than 50%, and I do 40-45%. I think @Lacrystol does even lower than that.

When you said one of them poked the bill through, do you mean it pipped internally, meaning it broke through the internal membrane, or do you mean it broke through its shell?

 

[casie]

I'm not sure what to to about the humidity because some of my eggs are really early like day 6 or 7 and some of them are piping. This litte guy broke through the shell and was trying to work it's way around but did not make it I wish I had helped