candling/hatching question

[Orca5094]

I wanted to let y'all know that this was a helpful forum. I'm the duck mom of a Cayuga and Peking duck. Goose, my Peking duck was vented by the vet and started laying 9 days ago. I'm not sure if Henry, my Cayuga is a drake or hen, but I bring them in every night and it sounds as if there is some hanky panky going on at night and Goose has some hair missing from her neck. Because of this forum I will candle the eggs and let you all know. Thanks again!

Hi there, and welcome to BYC! Glad we could be of help to you!

Can you post a pic of your Cayuga? If it's a male it should have curly feathers above his tail, or at least have the raspy male voice. Females are the ones that are noisy and "quack", but males have a quieter, raspy voice. Very different. If you look on YouTube there are many videos where you can hear the difference between male and female duck voices. That's the easiest way to tell.

Sorry you had a broken egg, but that does happen. It looks like they played around with it and ate it, which also happens. It might have been broken by one of them accidentally, but then once they taste that yummy yolk inside, they tend to eat it up.

 

[tbevans]

@andreak45 so glad this helped you! I'm a total newbie with the whole egg thing and everyone has been such a huge help with all of the many questions I've asked!! sorry about your broken egg. This happened to me with one of my pekin eggs. It got busted before I collected eggs one day and my pekin gobbled it up!

@orca5049 oh ok!! I thought I had read somewhere the first few were mostly duds! Good to know that's not true!! Oh yay! I was thinking a no cause it wasn't as distinct as others I've seen. Think she would stay broody this time or should I just incubate if I want aNY to hatch?? Oh and my humidity is staying in the 50's..is that too high for right now??

 

[Orca5094]

@andreak45 so glad this helped you! I'm a total newbie with the whole egg thing and everyone has been such a huge help with all of the many questions I've asked!!

sorry about your broken egg. This happened to me with one of my pekin eggs. It got busted before I collected eggs one day and my pekin gobbled it up!

@orca5049 oh ok!! I thought I had read somewhere the first few were mostly duds! Good to know that's not true!! Oh yay! I was thinking a no cause it wasn't as distinct as others I've seen. Think she would stay broody this time or should I just incubate if I want aNY to hatch?? Oh and my humidity is staying in the 50's..is that too high for right now??

That IS a little high for the humidity, yes. If you can get it lower, that would be good. But just keep an eye on your air cells. If they continue to grow in size like they should, then all is ok even if the humidity is higher than you want it to be.

And the bullseye is not always super clear and easy to see. A fresh fertile egg will be harder to see the bullseye in than say a 3-day old fertile egg. That bullseye grows a little over time, even before the egg is incubated.

 

[tbevans]

How would I go about lowering it?? I've poured almost all of the water out of the bowl with the sponge. The air cell does apear to be a tiny bit bigger than a couple days ago when I marked it with a pencil. I still done have movement in 2 of the 3 eggs. There's no smell tho. So idk what to think!

 

[WVduckchick]

How would I go about lowering it?? I've poured almost all of the water out of the bowl with the sponge. The air cell does apear to be a tiny bit bigger than a couple days ago when I marked it with a pencil. I still done have movement in 2 of the 3 eggs. There's no smell tho. So idk what to think!

Have you checked humidity with no water at all? Many of us are using no water during incubation, until lockdown, and its still plenty humid on its own. So you could try taking the bowl and the sponge completely out. Humidity depends alot on your local conditions..

 

[Orca5094]

This is true, some people do have enough ambient humidity in their area to not need to add water to their incubators. I am not so lucky. You could start by removing the sponge in your water bowl and see if that brings the humidity down enough. Adding sponges raises the humidity. Also, it doesn't matter how much water is in your bowl, it is the surface area of water that makes the difference. That's why removing the sponge should bring it down a bit. If it is still too high after that, I'd try removing the bowl like WVduckchick suggested.

 

[tbevans]

I took the bowl with the sponge out and it dropped to 40%. Here in Louisiana we have an abundance in humidity! Lol perhaps we have plenty to keep it where it needs to be until lockdown! Thanks!!

 

[tbevans]

Just a little update...2 of the eggs are still having no movement, and don't seem to have grown at all. Still no smell to them tho. But egg # 3 is still moving strong and seems to be growing great!

 

[Orca5094]

Just a little update...2 of the eggs are still having no movement, and don't seem to have grown at all. Still no smell to them tho. But egg # 3 is still moving strong and seems to be growing great!

Good to hear Egg #3 is still moving and looking good, but yeah it does sound like the other two must have died. I guess if there's no smell or anything it won't hurt anything to keep them in a little longer, just to be absolutely sure. I always like to err on the side of caution.

 

[tbevans]

OMG! I candled my 3rd egg and it was so stinking cool!!! It was a drastic difference from the last time I candled! I saw the duckling moving around (it looks like its doubled in size) and was even able to make out the beak & head!!! EEEKKK!! I'M so excited! LOL!!