Duck eggs set today. What should I do differently?

[kaffleck]

That's a pity. Well the one with the crack has zipped ALL OVER THE PLACE! It's killing me

I'm just praying it hasn't got too tired to finish off. The membrane is clearly visible - looks patchy in places. I'm wondering now whether to give it a quick misting or leave well alone.

 

[kaffleck]

I decided to dampen the membrane a bit and I removed some of the shell. Turns out the membrane was still intact at this point! I couldn't tell if it was still alive but have misted all over, and the other ones, and popped it back in the bator.

 

[snowhorse]

Im dieing here what did you get!!?

And I want to see some pics!

 

[kaffleck]

Still waiting! I'm pretty sure it's still alive, and the one beside it has cracked now but not zipped as such, and membrane still intact. Wierd duckys! Then another has a bit of blood showing so must be doing something. Arghhh the waiting is killing me!!!

 

[kaffleck]

Mixed emotions update. I lost the first 3 eggs. The 2 that had cracked went all smooshy inside, and when I was peeling the rest of the shell off the first one it exploded. Yuck! It stank too! I'm guessing the duckling must have died pretty soon after I noticed it had peeped through into the air sac a couple of days before. The other started leaking a jelly substance from the back end of it. I remember reading something about this to do with humidity but can't find it now? And then a 3rd one managed to peck through out of the shell and then quit. It was perfect except it hadn't absorbed the yolk. That was the one that had been bleeding. The other 2 hadn't absorbed either. I reckon they were trying to hatch too soon. Any idea as to why? Unless my thermometer isn't calibrated properly and the temps are too high? It's a Brinsea Eco Automatic and I'm just using the digital thermometer reading on that.

I decided to give the remaining 3 eggs a warm bath as one had a crack but no pip. The membrane looked chalky white and pretty dry. Got a shock when the egg sort of shuddered and then started peeping! I panicked about poor ducky being stuck in there and decided to give it a hole. It bled. I damped it down and stuck it back in the bator. That was yesterday. I've been damping the little thing every few hours and so far it seems happy just to nibble on the hole and make it bigger. Fingers crossed. One of the other eggs is peeping too in response to it's bath, and the other one isn't doing much but considering hatch date was supposed to be in another 2 days time I'm not worrying about it having quit just yet.

I was ready to give up on the whole incubating and hatching malarky last night. Today I'm more optomistic and thinking about ditching this current incubator and trying a homemade one. The incubating seems to go pretty well (except for this last lot deciding to try and hatch stupid early!) but there's too much margin for error when it comes to hatching.

 

[Jenandnaomi]

 

[TK Poultry]

Quote:
Me 2... I'm a stickler on humidity with duck eggs.... I usually get about a good hatch with my swede eggs with this method. my first test hatch 2 out of 3 hatched... my second test 1 out of 2 hatched. I now have 56 set yesterday due the 30th.

 

[kaffleck]

I got one!

This is the one that I opened in a panic and now I'm really glad that I did. The other peeping one quit before making it through the shell. When I opened it to check it had turned around so that it's bottom was in the air sac, yolk still unabsorbed. I have one egg left in the bator now which I'm leaving until Sunday.
The one duckling is seriously cute and loves cuddles.