Duck Eggs Hatching 3 Days Early?

[BrieCheese23]

Well, chicks were all done hatching as of Saturday, 21 plus 6 I won at a local raffle as part of a "chick starter" kit. My duck eggs hit day 28 on Wednesday, but I decided to put them into lockdown last night because the high on my bator has been 100 and it's been between 99 and 101 since the start (aside from a brief spike into 102 today from the humidity...little worried about that). My chicks out of it hatched a day or so early and when I candled to check air sacks, one of them had their beak up, so I figured, why not?

Well tonight I have a pip! And honest to goodness quacking pip. O.0 I doubt he'll hatch until tomorrow, but geez this little guy's fast. Anybody else get ducks this early from those temps?

 

[BrieCheese23]

I now have four duck eggs pipping on day 26 and the one from yesterday is wiggling like crazy. My chicken eggs never wiggled like this. He's a funny, little bird already.

 

[BrieCheese23]

One hatched! All nine of the other eggs (forgot I tossed a late quitter at lockdown) are pipping! Yay!!!

 

[sabrina11]

One hatched! All nine of the other eggs (forgot I tossed a late quitter at lockdown) are pipping! Yay!!!

Just saw this! How are they doing? Do you have any pictures?!

 

[BrieCheese23]

The five who've hatched are doing awesome and are all curled up together in the bator with three eggs starting to zip and two more still just pipping. Official hatch date isn't until tomorrow, so I'm not too, too worried. Just impatient xD

I will have pictures in the morning when it isn't dark outside. I just got home from a long day at work and it's super hard to not pull these quackers out and snuggle with them.

 

[BrieCheese23]

This is what 8 ducklings looks like. One more is attempting to zip, but having trouble. He looks shrink wrapped (despite 89% humidity). He'll probably need assistance. The tenth egg has yet to go beyond the initial pip from yesterday, but is still alive, so fingers crossed. This is the official hatch day. I don't think he'll make it though.

 

[sabrina11]

This is what 8 ducklings looks like. One more is attempting to zip, but having trouble. He looks shrink wrapped (despite 89% humidity). He'll probably need assistance. The tenth egg has yet to go beyond the initial pip from yesterday, but is still alive, so fingers crossed. This is the official hatch day. I don't think he'll make it though.

Awwwwww adorable

 

[BrieCheese23]

9th little guy was helped out this morning at 4am. He definitely had membrane stuck to his wing and couldn't turn. He is currently building up hi strength. Egg number ten is still alive, but very weak. I peeled back a tiny bit of shell to check on him and his membrane does not appear to be stuck, but I saw blood, so I moistened the spout I opened with warm water and stopped. Go figure that eight hatch a day or two early and the last two have to be late xD

 

[Katiebug5386]

What was your humidity and temp when you first started and when they went into lock down when did you put them into lock down and the temp and humidity for their lock down? sorry just new at hatching duck eggs i have just ordered them now and im just eeepppp so excited lol could you please help me on what you did to make them hatch ??

 

[BrieCheese23]

Answered your pm.

For anyone else who might be curious, this is what I did:

Humidity from day 1 to day 24 was 40ish% with watching air cells to make sure they weren't too big or small. Day 24/25-28 is bumped to 75-80% and got up to 90% when they were hatching (from moisture in the eggs/on the chicks). My temps were kinda high at 99-101F (approx 38C) but my bator was in celcius, and didn't set half points. The usual temp is 99.5-100F

Hope that helps! Oh and if you're ordering eggs it's best to have them sit with the fat end (the one the air cell should be on) up for 24-48 hours. I do it in the bator with the turner unplugged so they can get a head start since shipped eggs have a harder time anyway. Then after the 24ish hours I just plug in the turner/start turning and viola.

Just check air cells at day 7, 14, and 21, then again at lockdown. If they're too small, lower the humidity, too big and you raise it. There are plenty of diagrams floating around the forum and on google images.