Egg Emergency! *update* all died :(

[obsidianembrace]

The humidifier is working again (thank heavens). We completely refilled it and unplugged it and gave it a ten minute break. The temp got down to the high 80s during this time, but the humidity stayed in range because of the towels.

Here are pics of the egg's discoloration.


if you look closely, you can see the outline of the air bubble (?) on top. And all the pointy ends are darker and two have black spots on them.


the egg in the front is the furthest along. the black spot is a little bumpy. It has the most dramatic color difference.


about an hour after we fixed the humidifier. i've taking two towels off the side since then and the humidity is still at 95. i just realized that i'd move the hydrometer right next to the humidifier in re-arranging so that is probably not an accurate reading. I moved it to where it was before.

What do you think about the discoloration?

 

[katharinad]

What I don't like is that the air cell is on the side, and not the wide top. I guess only time will tell. I had lots of duck eggs that looked discolored with close to hatching and did hatch, so just leave it alone. The ones that look discolored before lock down are usually a problem.

 

[teresa-78]

Fingers crossed for you,

Hope all turns out well,

 

[obsidianembrace]

The humidity is ridiculously high again. It's at 99%. I took all of the towels off and now the temp is sinking but the humidity is sky high. Any suggestions? (The humidifier only has one setting, i could turn up the heating pad to high, but that might be too hot right on the eggs)

Edit: actually the temp is stable at 97 now. but before when i took the lid off to lower humidity for a little bit, it got low. the humidity is still 99 and i don't know how to get it down.

 

[katharinad]

Can you just use the heating pad and wet towels instead?

 

[obsidianembrace]

Well it's mostly the humidity that's keeping it warm. That's why when I let so much humidity out, the temp went down.

We made a little chimney in the back to let the humidity go mostly out the back instead of across the eggs and out. We'll see it that works...

Is so much humidity going to *hurt* them? They haven't pipped yet.

 

[obsidianembrace]

We figured out our hydrometer was waaay off and so we ran and bought a new one. It's reading 76 right now so we're good.

The color change seems to be getting more obvious. Here are updated pics.





(ignore the readings, those new thermometers had jsut barely been put in)

Do you guys still think this is okay? If you look on the bottom of the eggs, it's more splotchy colored than scratch looking.

How long do we wait for them to hatch before we decide they're dead? How do we know if they're dead?

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

Sorry, I haven't read the entire thread, but have you tried candling the eggs?

 

[Birdcrazy]

Yeah I agree with candling them. Just check out whats going on?
Also maybe softly talk/peep to the eggs to see if you get any peeping from them in return? Or listen for tapping from inside of the egg?
Other than that they just need time

they can take ages so dont get too worried if nothing seems to be happening.

Candle them and post some pic's of it because many people on here are very good at seeing what's up with the eggs

(aka Katharina)

 

[obsidianembrace]

What would we see from candling though? Doesn't the duckling take up the entire space and it's just all black? Because we did that a few days ago and it was all black except for the air bubble. Also I've tried to take pictures of the candling before and it didn't work. What camera settings do you use? (No flash, obviously)

I'm willing to wait for days (which today is the third day) but my mom is not. She's sure they're dead because of all the black. They're worse this morning.