Duck Eggs

[William T]

Hello there, I’m kind of in need of help. I work landscaping and we destroyed this bush which the mother duck had gotten hurt. I have had the duck eggs since last Friday. By searching countless hours of research I tried to compare the eggs I seen online wile candling them to see the right time to lock them down. I locked them down 4 days ago and still nothing. I did pull them out because I thought we were doing something wrong and might have killed them because I couldn’t even get the humidity level to be were it was supposed to be. 6 out of the 7 eggs the ducks were still moving on the inside. 2 off them looked like the tried to break open the eggs because there were cracks in the egg and a little hole. The one egg that did have a crack in it and a hole the duck was no longer moving. I very carefully tried to asset the hatch but no luck. The duckling did have a full set of feathers and a bill. The duckling was actually really big it seemed. I left the rest alone and but the back on lockdown. I still can get the humidity level over 65%. I have poored water in the trays and even put a sponge in there to try to help the humidity but still no luck.

 

[Shoebox]

Using warm water should help raise the humidity, and take care to block drafts from air conditioning vents if there are any. But also make sure the ventilation ports on the incubator are fully open even if it makes the humidity drop a little, because the air exchange is crucial.

And ducklings normally do take quite a while for their hatching process anyway. I recently hatched a few that I rescued from a nest too, and they took longer to hatch than expected because guessing their age from candling wasn't precise, and having been interrupted in the nest probably slowed their development a bit.

I wish you and the ducklings the best of luck!

 

[Kiki]

65 is plenty high enough.

What is the temperature at?

 

[William T]

100

 

[JaeG]

Sounds like the ducklings have pipped. Ducklings can take up to 48 hours from that pip stage to actually hatching, so patience is required for these babies. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

[William T]

Still nothing yet. It looks like all of them have little holes. I candled all of them again and there still all moving inside.

 

[JaeG]

Still nothing yet. It looks like all of them have little holes. I candled all of them again and there still all moving inside.

Ducklings seriously try your patience.

 

[bhaugh]

If your candling then it means your opening the lid. Esp now when they are trying to get out DONT open the lid. Valuable humidity is being lost and with air now viable to the duckling with the egg pipped, it could shrink wrap the duckling and smother it.

 

[William T]

This morning one of the 5 eggs was rocking back and forth.

 

[William T]

I woke up this morning and 3 of them hatched