Candled duck eggs, not sure what this means

[lina500]

I have a duck who was sitting on 9 eggs. I'm not certain how long she has been sitting, nor how old the eggs are. Some are definitely older than other. One seems to have exploded, one was not fertilized so I removed it, two have veins so seem like they are progressing, and there are four that I have no idea what is going on. I would appreciate your thoughts about these eggs, as I'm not sure if I should remove them or not.

#1 is solid black



#2 looks "messy" it's not solid black, but I don't see any signs of ducklings.

#3 and #4 look like they have a mass in them, but I don't see veins so I am not sure what this means.

 

[cypressdrake]

#1 looks good. #2 looks to have died, 3 & 4 are clearly no development.

 

[lina500]

Thank you for your help! I just threw away 3 eggs, so now she has 4 left.

Of the four that are left, I saw movement in one, and the other three look like #1 as above, solid black with an air pocket. I hope they are alive!

 

[cypressdrake]

As long as the temp and humidity is right, they should be, since you have candled already. Good luck on your hatch.

 

[lina500]

I looked at them again yesterday. One has externally pipped, one has internally pipped, and I saw no movement or signs of life in the other two. Our duck is now being very protective so I don't know if the external pip has hatched yet, and I don't want to kick her off the nest. But I am dying to know!

 

[cypressdrake]

Just keep an eye on them and make sure they make progress with hatching. Sometimes they can use some assistance, but in most cases they do o.k.
I sometimes peel out weak ones that get dried up and stuck. As long as there is no bleeding from the inner peel. If it bleeds I let it alone for several more hours and try again. Sometimes I peel stuck chicks and duckling out under a small trickle of warm water, but careful not to wet the beak and drown them. As always though, it's best if they hatch on their own, and only offer assistance if you see several hours of no progress.

 

[lina500]

So it's been 24 hours or so since I noticed the first external pip. That duck is almost fully out of the egg now and seems to be doing fine on its own. Another egg has externally pipped. I'm interested to see how it turns out because it's an oddly shaped egg, long and oval. I wonder if the duckling will be normal.

There are two more eggs in there, that I thought might be dead. When I checked just now one had exploded so I removed it. I left the other one there. Shame because it had clearly developed to pretty far along before it died.