Egg Autopsy - The Duck is still moving! :(

[iYammmz]

I'm incubating 6 magpie duck eggs, and so far 3 have hatched by day 29. It is now day 31 and they were still 3 eggs still left.
I decided to candle them and one looked like number 5 only with a smaller air sac, so I cracked it open but it was still moving.
Here is the video of it moving:

Here is a picture of the duck



Do you think if I left it, it would eventually hatch? Also, should I keep incubating the other eggs?

Thank you for the help

 

[Pyxis]

Yes, that was a viable duckling and likely would have hatched. What breed were these? What was your incubator temperature throughout incubation?

 

[iYammmz]

They were sold as magpie ducks and the other that hatched were magpie ducks. The temperature was 37.7C (99.86F), the others hatched so I'm guessing that the incubator setup was correct.
But what about the others?

 

[Pyxis]

Well, the reason I asked the breed is because muscovies take 35 days to hatch.

If they're not muscovies, your incubation temp must have been low. Did you calibrate your thermometer?

Keep incubating the others. Have you candled the others to see what's going on inside?

 

[iYammmz]

They look healthy, I can't see anything since they're quite developed. The air sac is also larger than the one I cracked open. The thermometer-humidity is a DHT22 AM2302 which is +/- 0.5C but I'm not sure how calibrated it is.

Is there a limit to how many days they take to hatch?

 

[Pyxis]

Well at a certain point your temp would have been so low that they don't develop correctly, so there is kind of a cut off as to how long they can take. I've had a chick hatch as much as five days late. I'd give them at least that amount of time.

What kind of incubator are you using? Are you going by the temp on its digital readout? Depending on the incubator that may not be very accurate and it's a good idea to double check it using a thermometer you know to be accurate.

 

[iYammmz]

It is a digital readout, I checked the accuracy before I started incubating eggs and they had the same readout so I assumed that they were accurate. I'm a computer science student so I designed my own automated incubator using an Arduino. I made it so the temperature doesn't go below 37.0C (98.6F) or higher than 37.9C (100.04).

I must admit there is slight possibility they're Muscovy. The seller could've gotten mixed up since Magpie and Muscovy are similar but I doubt it. Are there certain characteristics that only Muscovy ducklings or eggs have when compared to other waterfowl?

 

[Pyxis]

There's not really a way to tell the eggs from other breeds, so it's totally possible the seller gathered eggs and accidentally mixed some muscovy eggs in with their magpie eggs. At this point since it sounds like the temps were dead on and the seller also had muscovies, and judging from the stage of development on that duckling at day 31, I'd operate under the assumption that the other eggs are muscovies. In that case, they aren't due until day 35. Your other ones are likely magpies since they hatched within 29 days - that's not unusual for them to go one day over.

They could also be mules - a cross between the magpie (any mallard derived breed really) and the muscovies - and those usually hatch around 32 days.

 

[iYammmz]

Wow mules? That sounds kinda cool.
I heard that Muscovies need much lower humidity levels to hatch, is this true? If so, I don't think they'll hatch since I've keep the humidity, for the last 3 days, at 70%~80% and I've been spraying them with water

Thank you so much for the help

 

[Pyxis]

Actually that humidity is fine, they should still hatch if they're muscovies Keep us updated on how they do!