Day 22 - duck eggs, lock downin 4 days - a lttle concerned

[flood]

I tried to give these away on craigslist but found no takers...So I am hatching them! (I did not know about byc auctions then.) I had 40 eggs and chose 26 to incubate. Candled at 7 days only one was infertile. They all looked to be developing the same. On day 14 it was the same, all looked nearly identical save for some are pekin some are rouen.

I am using an LG and cheat sheet, still air, no water, auto egg turner - - so the eggs are placed upright. Humidity has been around 35% the whole time. Now that they are so dense I am relying on smell to make sure no one is dis.

When I candled them a few days ago they all look different. Different size air sacks and embryo sizes. Some have no embryo in the top or the bottom of the egg while some are all duck with regular air sack.
A couple have cock-eyed air sacks but I think this is from them moving around. I know they are moving in there because one of the thermometers keeps getting moved now when it had never moved before. Now it gets moved within a few minutes if I fix it.

As I sit here, I think I hear peeps but I must be crazy because it is too early...again. I hope I am crazy and it is the birds outside!

So, why are some of them not occupying the bottom of the egg? I never saw this when I incubated on their sides.
Will it be best to hatch them upright since they have grown that way or should I lay them on their sides? I am hoping for a greater than 30% hatch rate this time so I am really trying to follow the rules.
What humidity should I bring them up to when I lock down? And lastly, I think I am going to lock down early since the last ones started hatching four days early. Is there any reason this is a bad idea?
Thanks so much for your help!

Lorie

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I tried to give these away on craigslist but found no takers...So I am hatching them! (I did not know about byc auctions then.) I had 40 eggs and chose 26 to incubate. Candled at 7 days only one was infertile. They all looked to be developing the same. On day 14 it was the same, all looked nearly identical save for some are pekin some are rouen.

I am using an LG and cheat sheet, still air, no water, auto egg turner - - so the eggs are placed upright. Humidity has been around 35% the whole time. Now that they are so dense I am relying on smell to make sure no one is dis.

When I candled them a few days ago they all look different. Different size air sacks and embryo sizes. Some have no embryo in the top or the bottom of the egg while some are all duck with regular air sack.
A couple have cock-eyed air sacks but I think this is from them moving around. I know they are moving in there because one of the thermometers keeps getting moved now when it had never moved before. Now it gets moved within a few minutes if I fix it.

As I sit here, I think I hear peeps but I must be crazy because it is too early...again. I hope I am crazy and it is the birds outside!

So, why are some of them not occupying the bottom of the egg? I never saw this when I incubated on their sides.
Will it be best to hatch them upright since they have grown that way or should I lay them on their sides? I am hoping for a greater than 30% hatch rate this time so I am really trying to follow the rules.
What humidity should I bring them up to when I lock down? And lastly, I think I am going to lock down early since the last ones started hatching four days early. Is there any reason this is a bad idea?
Thanks so much for your help!

Lorie

Lorie, so sorry no one responded! : ( How did it go????

 

[flood]

It went well thank you! Most of the ones I candled that looked strange were quitters. I had to sneak them out of a "locked" bator when they went bad but things went well with the hatch and I am better able to tell what has quit and what has not. This post got lost at the bottom and in an emergency I created a shorter one. I did get a reply on that one. You know what? I actually did hear peeps that day that I posted this, and had 1 duck hatch very early. Now, I have 17 ducklings!

ETA: Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for responding.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

It went well thank you! Most of the ones I candled that looked strange were quitters. I had to sneak them out of a "locked" bator when they went bad but things went well with the hatch and I am better able to tell what has quit and what has not. This post got lost at the bottom and in an emergency I created a shorter one. I did get a reply on that one. You know what? I actually did hear peeps that day that I posted this, and had 1 duck hatch very early. Now, I have 17 ducklings!

ETA: Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for responding.

awwww!! Congrats!!!! I want to hatch muscovy in the spring.... can you share some of you learned??? Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!! u have pics in the other thread???

 

[flood]

Thanks! I didn't upload pics. I forget that is one of the best parts on this board! I bet I have some though and I got a good amount of hatch video of that first egg, I planned on hooking them together and posting them but they are on two ipods that belong to the kids. I may still do it just for fun.

I learned to leave them alone. Watching them is like waiting for water to boil. Ducks really do take forever. From internal pip to hatch was more than three days in several instances. I worried a little about them but had previously decided that I wanted NO help-outs. So I let nature do her thing...for the most part. I did end up with one helpout. It pipped at the wrong end and survived days like that. When I thought everyone else was done hatching I pipped into the airsack in case some hatching process was triggered by only that and then cleared the shell around its beak and waited another day. Then I hatched it. It needed some physical therapy for a day or two because it had a bum leg that stuck out backwards but things turned out fine and it is with the others now.

I also learned that when I candle them in late third week and there is space below the embryo that is *yellowish* with no orange/pink hue to them they are quitters regardless if I still see veins nearer the embryo. **The tint of the fluid matters** It was difficult to take a photo of this because of the advanced state of the eggs. Those veins that I saw on a couple later dried up/went away and the eggs went bad very quickly. In hindsight I could have counted at that point how many wouldn't hatch.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

very interesting!!