Adding pipped duck eggs to incubator with day 18 chicken eggs?

[chickliberty]

We woke up to surprise ducklings this morning, outside under the junk pile. However, only four ducklings are hatched out of what appears to have been over 20 eggs. A few appeared to have died at hatching, some pipped, but never zipped, and several are not hatched yet, or just pipped and not dead- yet... I want to try to save the rest, and we happen to have an incubator going with chicken eggs on day 18 today. I want to just pop these few duck eggs in there. Will it be OK??

I don't want to ruin the hatch, and this is the first time we've used an incubator at all. We are borrowing it, trying to hatch out some replacements for the 25 birds we lost a month ago to weasel attack. We are at 28 viable eggs in the incubator right now.

So, will it be OK to add these duck eggs just for a day or two, until they hatch??

 

[Webersome123]

Make sure the duck eggs are relatively clean and you can pop 'em in there. I don't think they will cause any problems. Good luck!

 

[chickliberty]

Thanks, I did. I put about 10 eggs in there, three had pipped, with portions of the shell gone, and clear view of beaks and such. One has a pip crack, but no hole yet, and all the rest have something inside moving around.

But now one that had pipped and had lost part of its shell has died. Why does this happen? We took it out and it indeed was dead, and upon further examination noticed that the yolk was not completely absorbed yet. Any idea why this happens? It seems like we have lots of ducklings that never make it, we've never examined this closely before, as they are always with their mama duck. Is this possibly a genetic thing?? Just seems so odd that so many make it all the way to this point, and then die... So sad :-(

 

[Bryam]

Probably poor / low humidity! Ducklings need high Humidty duting hatchibg. Spray the eggs with warm water, to increase the humidty!

 

[chickliberty]

Humidity is at 70% right now, but it was as low as 52 earlier today. :-( So, should I open it up and spray them at this point? One has hatched now, didn't really zip, just slid out of its shell, but it came out not completely closed up at the yolk/belly. We've been watching it for an hour or so. It appears to be closed now at the belly, but it is still pretty uncoordinated, and just flops around. I'm worried its going to get over to the chicken eggs. I don't want it to break them, but don't want to disturb anything either!!

Another of the pipped is about to zip/hatch. One that had just a tiny crack I "helped" and now regret that too. It IS shrink wrapped though(I should have figured the humidity issue from that, pretty obvious, huh?) I opened the crack a tiny bit because I was starting to worry about it, and it was shrink-wrapped, without even the beak out. I peeled a bit of the membrane back so at least the beak was exposed. I probably shouldn't have, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Well, I got a blood vessel, and a bit of blood came out. I put it back though, it is still breathing, and is now peeping every now and then... I am not wanting to rush it out, but the shrink wrapping concerns me...What should I do?

Who knew hatching eggs could be so stressful!!! No wonder mother hens and ducks are so nervous and on edge all the time!!!!