Problems with hatching

[katie246]

Hi I'm having issues with hatching my duck eggs the eggs don't want to lose moisture and the air sacks won't grow on half of my eggs the other half have big air sacks and are hatching now but they have lots of sticky stuff on them and 2 have died during hatching please help.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@WVduckchick

 

[WhiteWyan]

Sounds like humidity was too high. Do you use a hygrometer?

 

[WVduckchick]

Lightly misting duck eggs late in incubation (like days 18-25) can help them lose more moisture. (I know, it sounds backwards) Also you can wipe the egg with a slightly damp sponge, removing the bloom can aid in moisture loss too. These two things work great on ones when you have some air cells growing well, and some not.

 

[chickens really]

Humidity was too high..Sorry that happened..

 

[WVduckchick]

If some air cells grew very well and are hatching, I'm not convinced that too high humidity was the only issue. @katie246 What did you run the humidity at for incubation?

 

[katie246]

I have a hydrometer and it was running between 30 and 35% had 10eggs fertile 4 internally pipped on day 24 nd external pipped on day 25 but 2 have died they had sticky stuff on them that dried hard so I have opened the other 2 up slightly and put coconut oil on the mountain and left them in a cup in the incubator because they still have abit of yolk left to absorb but one is doing great and one not so much the other 6 are still in the growing bator and lock down is supposed to be today but they look no where near ready oh and the hatching bator is running on 65% humidity.

 

[katie246]

The 30-35% humidity was dry hatching as we live in a humid area so I didn't add any water

 

[chickens really]

Sound almost like they didn't have enough moisture
Then too much or

 

[katie246]

I was wondering if it could be something to do with the bloom as they are all Cayuga eggs and I had some washed and in the fridge ready for eating then my male became I'll so I took them out of the fridge and started to incubate them and a few I collected on the next 2 days but I didn't wash them and it's the freshest ones that wernt washed that I'm having the problem with the ones that were washed are the 4 that the air sack was ok on if that makes sense.