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!