29 day duck eggs, live, no pips or signs of hatching.

[GottaHatchEmAll]

Hello!

This is my first time ever hatching duck eggs. I have two pekin eggs in the incubator that are currently at day 29. I candled them yesterday, and they were both alive. But they aren't pipping at all. I read that they can hatch as late as day 32, but is it normal for my eggs to be alive but not pipping at day 29? We did have a power outage this morning, but it was an extremely brief one (5mins at most).

Are my eggs alright?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

What did you use for a thermometer?

 

[SnackMeat]

When you candle do you see veins? I would make a small air hole if the veins are very small or you cannot see them. If the veins are sizeable and many then yeah they probably were incubated at a lower temp and slower to mature. Hopefully that doesn't cause an issue.

You can look up the assisted hatch write up on this forum. Some people don't want to assist and that's fine. But sometimes it's just bad placement in the shell, or the eggshell was too thick rather than there being anything wrong with the chick.

 

[GottaHatchEmAll]

What did you use for a thermometer?

My incubator thermometer

 

[GottaHatchEmAll]

When you candle do you see veins? I would make a small air hole if the veins are very small or you cannot see them. If the veins are sizeable and many then yeah they probably were incubated at a lower temp and slower to mature. Hopefully that doesn't cause an issue.

You can look up the assisted hatch write up on this forum. Some people don't want to assist and that's fine. But sometimes it's just bad placement in the shell, or the eggshell was too thick rather than there being anything wrong with the chick.

The veins are sizeable and many. I'm not assisting because I don't want to injure the ducklings, and I only intervene in a worst-case scenario, like what happened with a baby chick of mine, when the chick pipped but wasn't able to break the egg the rest of the way.

 

[GottaHatchEmAll]

Last night, I lowered the temp slightly so that they would be more inclined to hatch.

Btw, I got the eggs from an Asian market a couple of hours away! I picked the two freshest eggs from a carton of them.

 

[SnackMeat]

It's possible they are Muscovy eggs in which case 35-38 days incubation. If you haven't killed the eggs so far I wouldn't lower the temp. And incubator thermometers are notoriously unreliable.

Obviously, when candling and seeing lots of veins, don't touch. I was expecting Pekin or one of the other breeds but if the veins are still thick, then likely Muscovy or else your incubator temps were already under the correct temps and they are slowly maturing. Either way, lowering temp would be a mistake.

Good luck though. Grocery store eggs are always an interesting lottery ticket experience.

 

[GottaHatchEmAll]

It's possible they are Muscovy eggs in which case 35-38 days incubation. If you haven't killed the eggs so far I wouldn't lower the temp. And incubator thermometers are notoriously unreliable.

Obviously, when candling and seeing lots of veins, don't touch. I was expecting Pekin or one of the other breeds but if the veins are still thick, then likely Muscovy or else your incubator temps were already under the correct temps and they are slowly maturing. Either way, lowering temp would be a mistake.

Good luck though. Grocery store eggs are always an interesting lottery ticket experience.

Thank you for the tips! Sprayed the eggs down a little bit with water today. My incubator is currently at 98 degrees.

 

[GottaHatchEmAll]

Also, I'm not 100% sure that they are Pekins; you may be right about them being muscovies.

 

[GottaHatchEmAll]

My eggs look almost identical to the eggs in this picture that I found on Google (muscovy eggs), so you may be right.