Cayuga egg hatching late

[ashiebugs]

This is my second attempt to hatch Cayuga eggs, all of my eggs last time had detached air cells and none of them made it so I'm trying again. Now I've got a single Cayuga egg on day 30 with *I think* internal pip. It was wobbling a ton last night and I think I may have heard it, but I don't see an external pip. My humidity has been around 75% and my temperature is unreliable; my incubator says it is 98.5 but by digital thermometer says it is 95. I know duck eggs tend to hatch late, but is this normal? I've never hatched anything before so I am very nervous and worrisome.

 

[Pyxis]

!

If the incubator temperature at 95, that's way too low. I'm surprised one made it to lockdown at all. You need to have your temperature at 99.5 for forced air or 101.5 measured at the top of the egg for still air. The low temp would certainly explain why it hasn't hatched yet at day 30. Boost the temp up to where it should be and hopefully the little one will be able to hatch. How is it doing now? If it internally pipped a day ago it should be externally pipped now.

 

[ashiebugs]

I tried increasing the temperature but the incubator just won't let me for some reason, it is a forced air. The highest it would let me go was 98.5, but then again the digital thermometer was telling me it was slightly lower, about 96. It managed an external pip at about 1:30 pm today.

 

[Pyxis]

Sounds like it's doing okay

What kind of incubator is it?

 

[ashiebugs]

I have a Magicfly. It's supposed to hold 12 chicken eggs or 6 duck eggs, it is also an auto egg turner and is a gray oblong shape. I figured it would be perfect since I only wanted a few ducks. I got it off amazon with mixed reviews, I just didn't think the temperature problem would be so off.

 

[Pyxis]

I haven't heard anything good about those. I try to talk people out of getting them when they say they want to get one. I know one person who had so many problems with hers she just gave up halfway through her first incubation with them and bought a Brinsea. It sounds like yours can't get up to the proper temps to hatch eggs. If possible I'd return it for a refund and look into a different incubator. If you just want a small tabletop model that only holds a couple eggs, I would recommend a Brinsea Mini.

 

[ashiebugs]

Thank you for the recommendation

. I didn't know if I was going to incubate again so I just went with a cheap auto turner, DEFINITLEY learned my lesson. If I try to hatch more I will buy the brinsea. At least I may have one little baby. If it does make it past hatching, it's the only one. Do you think if it imprints on me it will have troubles?

 

[Pyxis]

They're very social animals. If it imprints on you and you don't plan to buy another duckling to keep it company, you need to be home for it all the time. I mean all the time - you would really have to work from home or someone would need to be home nearly constantly to give it the companionship it will need. It would need to live in the house as an adult and be a house duck so it has your companionship. And they live to be ten years or more so you'd need to plan on that for ten years. Lonely ducks have been known to stop eating and starve themselves to death. It would be much easier for you to buy it a friend

 

[ashiebugs]

Thank you for your insight, it's nice talking to someone who knows their stuff. I'll update if something happens

 

[ashiebugs]

Ok so it looks like it is trying to hatch, at 9 am it started to wiggle like crazy and made a good few cracks, but stopped there. I know this can take all day, but I'm a worry wart.