Baby ducks just died

[Ping1019]

I don't know. That duckling looks good to me. Not ready to hatch, but I don't see anything wrong with it. Did you help? Did you make a safety hole?

No- I didn’t assist at all. I candled and saw that it passed and opened the egg to see what happened. Any idea what the protruding area is? I have seen yolk sacs and chicks with intestines on the outside but this I wasn’t sure of.

 

[Ping1019]

I just hatched 7 ducks (Welsh Harlequins) out of 8 eggs so I have some recent experience.

Need more info to understand your scenario though:

1. How many eggs were you incubating and did you treat/wash them before incubation?
I had 8 (all Pekin) in the incubator at the time and these 2 moved to a separate incubator for lockdown. I didn’t treat or wash them but they were clean when they were shipped to me from the breeder.
2. Where did you get your eggs from?
A breeder in CT (eBay)
3. What incubator did you use? For incubation I used Farm Innovators Pro Series 4250 and for lockdown I used Nurture Right 360
4. Have you had any experience with hatching before?
We started hatching A LOT of different ducks, chicks, geese, quail since April and everything went great. It’s been the last few batches that have seemed off. I thought maybe the person that gave us the farm eggs directly could be the problem but I think now with the Pekin ducks that I purchased from someone completely different that it’s too much of a coincidence
5. What was your incubation temp and humidty set at before lock down?
Incubation temp was 99.5 and humidity was 50-55
Lockdown I put the temp down to 98 and brought the humidity up to 65-75 but did see it rise to 81. Although when there was absolutely no water in it and it was bone dry, it read 35.
6. Did you verify these settings with a thermometer/hygrometer?
Unfortunately, no and I wish I would have!
7. How often did you turn them?
They were on an automatic turner
8. Did you perform cooling?
For about 10 min each night
9. When and how often did you candle?
It depended, sometimes I candled a few nights in a row, skipped a few nights, etc.
My current Pekin ducks now, 2 eggs showed 2 separate heartbeats so I was monitoring those.


Humidity does play a significant role but it having humidity too high during development will reduce the air sac volume which is not good. Having humidity too low during lockdown will make it difficult for the duck to break through the egg. The egg should be losing weight (i.e. gaining air sac space) as the development proceeds.

 

[Ping1019]

1. How many eggs were you incubating and did you treat/wash them before incubation?
I had 8 (all Pekin) in the incubator at the time and these 2 moved to a separate incubator for lockdown. I didn’t treat or wash them but they were clean when they were shipped to me from the breeder.
2. Where did you get your eggs from?
A breeder in CT (eBay)
3. What incubator did you use? For incubation I used Farm Innovators Pro Series 4250 and for lockdown I used Nurture Right 360
4. Have you had any experience with hatching before?
We started hatching A LOT of different ducks, chicks, geese, quail since April and everything went great. It’s been the last few batches that have seemed off. I thought maybe the person that gave us the farm eggs directly could be the problem but I think now with the Pekin ducks that I purchased from someone completely different that it’s too much of a coincidence
5. What was your incubation temp and humidty set at before lock down?
Incubation temp was 99.5 and humidity was 50-55
Lockdown I put the temp down to 98 and brought the humidity up to 65-75 but did see it rise to 81. Although when there was absolutely no water in it and it was bone dry, it read 35.
6. Did you verify these settings with a thermometer/hygrometer?
Unfortunately, no and I wish I would have!
7. How often did you turn them?
They were on an automatic turner
8. Did you perform cooling?
For about 10 min each night
9. When and how often did you candle?
It depended, sometimes I candled a few nights in a row, skipped a few nights, etc.
My current Pekin ducks now, 2 eggs showed 2 separate heartbeats so I was monitoring those.

 

[Isaac 0]

These things happen when hatching Sometimes it's hard to know what went on inside that shell.

 

[333113]

If the humidity is too high you can end up with the ducklings or chicks getting too large for the shell. If it's just a little too large, you can help it hatch, if you catch it in time. But if they get way too big, then you end up with what you are seeing here, a well-formed duckling with no room to finish developing and hatching.

Best situation for the duckling is for you to candle every few days after the first day. If the eggs are not losing enough moisture then lower the humidity.

Metzer has a good link for how the eggs should look throughout incubation:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/Candling.cfm

 

[smithmal]

I

1. How many eggs were you incubating and did you treat/wash them before incubation?
I had 8 (all Pekin) in the incubator at the time and these 2 moved to a separate incubator for lockdown. I didn’t treat or wash them but they were clean when they were shipped to me from the breeder.
2. Where did you get your eggs from?
A breeder in CT (eBay)
3. What incubator did you use? For incubation I used Farm Innovators Pro Series 4250 and for lockdown I used Nurture Right 360
4. Have you had any experience with hatching before?
We started hatching A LOT of different ducks, chicks, geese, quail since April and everything went great. It’s been the last few batches that have seemed off. I thought maybe the person that gave us the farm eggs directly could be the problem but I think now with the Pekin ducks that I purchased from someone completely different that it’s too much of a coincidence
5. What was your incubation temp and humidty set at before lock down?
Incubation temp was 99.5 and humidity was 50-55
Lockdown I put the temp down to 98 and brought the humidity up to 65-75 but did see it rise to 81. Although when there was absolutely no water in it and it was bone dry, it read 35.
6. Did you verify these settings with a thermometer/hygrometer?
Unfortunately, no and I wish I would have!
7. How often did you turn them?
They were on an automatic turner
8. Did you perform cooling?
For about 10 min each night
9. When and how often did you candle?
It depended, sometimes I candled a few nights in a row, skipped a few nights, etc.
My current Pekin ducks now, 2 eggs showed 2 separate heartbeats so I was monitoring those.

Looks like you were well educated on how to hatch eggs. Couple problems might be:

Turning:
1. Did you get full turning with your incubator and how many times per day did you turn?

Cleaning/Disinfection
1. Many individuals suggest disinfecting eggs with hydrogen peroxide. Not only does it help kill bacteria that could kill the developing fetus, but it also promotes oxygen exchange at the surface of the egg shell which is necessary for proper fetal development.
2. How well were you disinfecting your incubators between hatches and how were you doing that?

Here's a good link on disinfection thoughts: https://poultrykeeper.com/incubating-and-hatching-eggs/how-to-clean-eggs-for-incubation/

Success ratio:
1. What was your success ratio? It sounded like it was fairly high. Purchasing eggs over the internet can be dicey. Hatching success with mail obtained eggs depends on a lot of factors including source of the eggs (fertilization effectiveness), when they are gathered, how quickly they were shipped, how they are packaged etc. My understanding is that eggs hatched at a farm with a good system can get a 90% success rate. Eggs hatched from mail obtained vendors should expect a much lower success late depending on their setup (around 50%).

 

[333113]

Unfortunately, hatching eggs shipped through USPS mail without the "special handling" fee, currently $11.95, will probably go through the automated conveyor belt sorting system, which involves up to three-foot drops. The special handling fee pays for a person instead of a mechanical system to handle package sorting. I always pay for special handling and next-day delivery when I ship hatching eggs, and I look for non-freezing and non-baking temperatures for the trip. Even then, 50% hatch is a reasonable expectation for shipped hatching eggs, in my opinion.