jtlh12
In the Brooder
- May 1, 2017
- 1
- 0
- 10
Hi all, we are new to backyard chickens and we were hoping to get some advice.
We bought 12 khaki campbell duck eggs exactly 30 days ago for a science project on imprinting. The people we bought them from seemed legit... they showed us their coop and existing ducks/ chickens and promised us that the eggs were fertile. We bought an incubator, kept the temperature at 99.5 degrees fahrenheit, and kept the humidity at approximately 55 (up until day 25, when we changed it to 75). We turned the eggs 3 times each day, marking sides x and o with pencil and using gloves to turn them. On day 25, we added a wet sponge to bring the humidity up.
About halfway through the period, we candled the eggs. About 5 eggs had visible veins and seemed to move a little if shaken. Other eggs seemed to be "yolkers." We did not see any blood spots or anything of that sort. We candled the eggs again yesterday (day 29) to see if there was movement.
Many looked similar to the eggs at the end of this chart.
We are not quite worried because we see no movement or pipping and the incubation period is supposedly 23-28 days (today is day 30). Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated; we don't know what we did wrong and are really stressing!! Should we try to help the ducks and poke a small hole in the membrane? We know that is last resort, but not sure what to do in this situation. Should we try a float test?
Thanks so much,
Juliette and Lauren
We bought 12 khaki campbell duck eggs exactly 30 days ago for a science project on imprinting. The people we bought them from seemed legit... they showed us their coop and existing ducks/ chickens and promised us that the eggs were fertile. We bought an incubator, kept the temperature at 99.5 degrees fahrenheit, and kept the humidity at approximately 55 (up until day 25, when we changed it to 75). We turned the eggs 3 times each day, marking sides x and o with pencil and using gloves to turn them. On day 25, we added a wet sponge to bring the humidity up.
About halfway through the period, we candled the eggs. About 5 eggs had visible veins and seemed to move a little if shaken. Other eggs seemed to be "yolkers." We did not see any blood spots or anything of that sort. We candled the eggs again yesterday (day 29) to see if there was movement.

We are not quite worried because we see no movement or pipping and the incubation period is supposedly 23-28 days (today is day 30). Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated; we don't know what we did wrong and are really stressing!! Should we try to help the ducks and poke a small hole in the membrane? We know that is last resort, but not sure what to do in this situation. Should we try a float test?
Thanks so much,
Juliette and Lauren