Do I need to be more patient?

[BelovedBirds]

Unfortunately nothing hatched Thanks for asking. Any thoughts on what we did wrong as we definitely heard one cheeping? I followed all the instructions. The incubator is several decades old from when I was young and we incubated these eggs to give it a go again. I am now wanting to try again, so I have invested in a new incubator, so any tips for the next attempt would be appreciated

Sorry to hear that! Losing them so close to hatch is really heartbreaking. I'm sorry for your loss.
Did you have a calibrated thermometer and hygrometer? Were the eggs shipped? Did you ensure the eggs were turned throughout incubation?
There are so many reasons a baby can fail to hatch, but if we can narrow it down a little bit, it may help next time.

 

[fairyfairyfairy]

Sorry to hear that! Losing them so close to hatch is really heartbreaking. I'm sorry for your loss.
Did you have a calibrated thermometer and hygrometer? Were the eggs shipped? Did you ensure the eggs were turned throughout incubation?
There are so many reasons a baby can fail to hatch, but if we can narrow it down a little bit, it may help next time.

Hi, sorry for the delay in replying. I didn't get a notification of your message!

Thank you for your kind words. It was very sad

To answer your questions, I did have a basic incubator with traditional thermometer, but no hygrometer. We just followed the manufacturers guidelines for the filling the water ports. The eggs weren't shipped, but from a friend's duck. I turned the eggs using the incubator. It was an hexagonal sided incubator, so we manually rocked in three times a day

Since the ducklings didn't hatch, I have invested in a new incubator as the one we had was fairly old. The one I bought has an automatic turner that turns every 2 hours. It auto-regulates temperature, but I have attached the old thermometer to keep an eye on it. I also have a basic hygrometer to keep an eye on the humidity

Any tips, improvements or thoughts for round 2