Air Sac Small??

[chickenlovernoteater]

Someone gave me a couple of duck eggs to incubate, but I have no idea the breed. They are white, and about to same size of my brahma chickens' eggs. Anywho, I am on day 21 and I candled. The entire egg is filled (except air sac) and I can barely see movement because it's filled so much. My concern is the air sac seems very small compared to pictures on the internet and compared to when I hatched chicken eggs. It looks like it only takes up about 1/6 of the egg. Should I be concerned? Do smaller eggs generally hatch faster? I wouldn't think the embroyo would be so large at 21 days.

 

[silkiechicken]

I'm not that knowledgeable about ducks, but as far as I know they take an extra week longer and because their shells are thicker, are harder to see though. If they still have an extra week to lose water, I would just keep on going. If they were at chicken stages of air cell growth now, they would likely be too dry a week from now. Ducks require higher humidity than chickens too so air cell may not need to grow as quickly as chickens.

But... I've never done duck eggs.

 

[FourSnyders]

If you have bantam ducks that you are hatching, they will take about 25 days and therefore will fill most of the egg by day 21. If they are standard sized ducks they will take 26-28 days before they even start to hatch and if they are Muscovies they will take about 33-35 days. By day 21 the air cell should take up 1/8-1/4 of the shell. If it seems too small, decrease the moisture level and/or increase the ventilation.

Hope this helps,

The Snyders