Duck Eggs, Day 29, Advice??

[ChickenLil123]

I am on day 29 with my duck eggs...there is no activity. I candled them this morning and there is no movement. I candled them on day 20 and they were looking beautiful! What happened???!!! How much longer should I give them. I think I am already smelling stink from the incubator. I am sooooo disappointed. I stopped turning them for lock down Friday December 27, that would have been day 25 ....was that too early. I am becoming really sad writing this.....:-( any advice....?

 

[bargain]

I am on day 29 with my duck eggs...there is no activity. I candled them this morning and there is no movement. I candled them on day 20 and they were looking beautiful! What happened???!!! How much longer should I give them. I think I am already smelling stink from the incubator. I am sooooo disappointed. I stopped turning them for lock down Friday December 27, that would have been day 25 ....was that too early. I am becoming really sad writing this.....:-( any advice....?

Okay, what was your humidity during lockdown??? We have the humidity so high in the styrofoam incs, that the windows are sweating. If your humidity is too low this is a culprit often. Humidity on ducks last three days - usually right at 80%. We also spray them with warm water before putting them in the lockdown being careful that no water is sprayed if cracking has already begun. Now do you have a way to see what your humdity and temp is now? without opening the inc. We also roll up towels and dampen them and put in for the last 3 days. If you have not calibrated your thermometer or hygrometer that can also e a culprit. As friendly advice, I would not candle on day 29, temps may have been low or humdity too low. Sit tight and wait a few days and if you need to add humdity do, so with a piping tube through a hole in the inc (away from the motor of course) the more you open the incuator the more you loose heat and humidity. I don't know what kind of ducks you have but often ducks will come out on day 29, 30 and even 31. Praying you'll get some little quackers!

 

[ChickenLil123]

Thank you so much for your advice. I will wait unit Thursday then January 3 (2013 woohoo!) before completely giving up . That will be day 31 or 32, I am counting the first day as December 3...but if I put them in late that day, maybe I shouldnt count this day. I have a homemade incubator I made myself. I have hatched chicken eggs out of it once before three eggs hatched and two of my eggs did not make it previously that had began to develop chicks. The other 3 were not fertilized. I am trying very hard to keep the incubator closed, however when I add water i have to open the top. Right now I have two thermometers in there and one says Humd-82-temp-95 and the other says Humd-79-temp-91. I also have a peice of cloth in there to absorb some of the light so it wouldnt shine directly on the babies when born which helps with humidity some. I did lose electricity for a while around day 19-23 or so and the temp went down into the 80s, but what I am reading on the internet that shouldnt matter, that eggs are more sensitive to, too much heat than cool temps. I will keep the humidity up as much as possible. Thank you for your advice, please let me know if you have anything else more for me to do......I am really starting to lose hope here......:-( sad.....I guess I wont be hatching eggs anymore....I was really looking forward to some little duckies around......Thank you for your prayers....God creates all life, life is beautiful.....created by our Maker....!

 

[TweetyNPetey]

Yes, they could be Muscovy eggs which take 35 days to hatch. Hope your little peepers hatch out ok!

 

[ChickenLil123]

Wow, Seriously 35 days! WOW Thanks for the Hope! I will check with the farm I got them from right now.
Blessings!

 

[bargain]

And don't count the day you put them in, it is 24 hours after that day that is day 1! I'll keep checking in. ! Farmer Nancy

 

[ChickenLil123]

okay so now I have a question....did i stop turning them too soon??? Day 25 or 26 is when i stopped turning and only 2 are completely full....i am so glad to know all this information now...I pray its not too late to have all this info, i wish i would have asked for advice here first....priceless, thanks to all of you. I will keep checking back for updates, and I will let you know if there are any changes.

 

[ChickenLil123]

Latest Update....Sadly I turned out the light on my incubator last night. I candled all the eggs and the masses that were in them were not moving and had distortions in all the eggs. The main reason I even checked them was that the incubator was really stinky and almost all the eggs that had masses in them were very stinky. Well I have learned alot and I thank all for the advice. Please dont hesitate to give me more advice on duck eggs because I plan to buy a professional incubator for next time....If there is a next time. Havent really decided yet...The ducks that I had come to find out from the farm I got them from were the breed called Peking Ducks. Thank you all and God Bless!

 

[FenDruadin]

Since they were all alive at Day 20 and then didn't hatch, my suspicion is that your humidity was too high during the main portion of incubation (I'm not talking about during lockdown, but rather during the earlier portion).

Late deaths like this are very often caused by an air cell that did not develop adequately. When you candled the dead eggs, did you notice how large the air cell was? For optimal results, you really need air cells that are a bare minimum of 25% of the egg volume--30% is better. Anything less than 25% and your hatch rates go down significantly. 10% or less and you will have a completely failed hatch.

Air cells develop due to moisture evaporating out of the egg over time. In a humid incubator, not enough moisture can evaporate and they don't develop effectively.

My suggestion is to try again with a lower humidity during the main portion. Candle every 5-7 days and mark the air cells (I circle them in pencil directly on the egg). This will give you a clear idea how they are developing. I suggest, since you've had a completely failed hatch, that you try a completely dry hatch next time (i.e., do not add water to the incubator until lockdown). This should give you better results if humidity was the issue.

A lot of folks blame these problems on low humidity during lockdown but honestly, that only matters after the chick has broken through the shell. At that point, the inner membranes become vulnerable to drying, and need to be kept moist.

By the way, the problem of underdeveloped air cells can (and often do) happen even when you follow instructions exactly. The reason for this is that every incubator and, just as importantly, every location, has its own factors that affect optimal humidity. Your optimal humidity is likely to be different from mine and anyone else's on this board. It's one of those things where you start with the recommendation, and then adjust according to results.

Good luck with your next hatch! Sorry about this bum one.

 

[LukensFarms]

I am a homemade incubator enthusiast.How do you know your heat is consistent? One of the problems I have discovered with homemade incubators, is the lack of consistent heat. What type of thermostat are you using? And what is the variations in temperature? Also how many degrees of variation is the outside environment where your incubator is located? Further did you open the incubator at all during the two days surrounding the time the eggs were to hatch?