Day 20, Small Air Sacs???

[Ducks81]

Day 20 w/my duck eggs, so far so good but I can’t help but feel the air sacs are lagging a bit. Are these guys going to have trouble hatching? I only have 2, my Indian Runner abandoned her clutch & these 2 are the only survivors. I believe same egg, either way their sacs are mostly identical.

 

[AgnesGray]

How much of the egg is in your hand? From what I can tell, it seems to be a pretty large air cell for being day 20. I keep this chart on hand for reference. Your pictures from what I can tell look more like day 24ish.

What humidity are you using? Are you misting/not misting?

 

[Ducks81]

How much of the egg is in your hand? From what I can tell, it seems to be a pretty large air cell for being day 20. I keep this chart on hand for reference. Your pictures from what I can tell look more like day 24ish.

What humidity are you using? Are you misting/not misting?

View attachment 2213542

I was using a different reference in which they looked smaller and then someone shared a farmers website of what they should look like. Pictures of actual eggs. (See attached) BUT you are right. From this chart they look like 24! Maybe even a little bigger. I wasn’t misting until a couple of days ago bc I read it can help with hatching, etc...my incubator is still air home made so the temp fluctuates but mostly stays an average of 100-101...the humidity is usually 35-50% as well. NOW my question is, do I set them up for lockdown early in case they are growing too fast? Or my growth days are off for some reason?? I’m nervous now. I took them out of my ducks nest and put them in the incubator on June 3rd at around 3pm. I am almost CERTAIN she was not sitting on them and I candles before placing in the incubator and I was able to see a very vague clear extra dot within the yolk, so that is what made me believe they were fertile & the heart beat was visual on the correct day....what do you suggest??

 

[Ducks81]

How much of the egg is in your hand? From what I can tell, it seems to be a pretty large air cell for being day 20. I keep this chart on hand for reference. Your pictures from what I can tell look more like day 24ish.

What humidity are you using? Are you misting/not misting?

View attachment 2213542

Sorry I forgot to post the picture. This was the link I was given...https://www.metzerfarms.com/Candling.cfm

 

[AgnesGray]

They may hatch a bit early or not. Ducks seem to take their time when hatching. The air cell reflects the humidity that has been evaporated out of the egg, not much the development of the embryo. So you should probably expect them to hatch at the usual time.

If the air cells are larger than they should be for the day they are on, you may want to raise the humidity a bit to slow that down. Depends what humidity you are running. Do you have a hygrometer to tell you the humidity percentage?