Eggs were stored for a week before incubating

[RunnerDucks1221]

Hi there, I am new to incubating duck eggs (I did it once before and was able to hatch three beautiful runner ducks) this is my second time doing it. I bought runner duck eggs from a farm (they told me the eggs were sitting out for a week in room temperature and told me to incubate right away). I got home and incubated them right away (37.5C for temp and humidity at 55%). I am worried that the fertility rate of the eggs has decreased significantly since they were sitting out without the incubator for a week from being laid. Also, the first night they were incubated the humidity dropped to 35% in the middle of the night for about 2.5 hours (my incubator beeped and beeped but i didnt wake up until afterwards). What are everyones thoughts? I fixed the humidity back to increase to 55% INSTANTLY after i noticed it was dropped. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Don’t worry about minor humidity fluctuations, aim for an average. Older eggs have a slightly decreased hatch rate at a week, after 10 days things get much worse. I intentionally left quail eggs sit 2-3 weeks and incubated until day 9, development was great but I did not take to hatch, you’ll probably see good development but a higher dead embryo rate, at a week it probably will be only a slight increase but after 10 days I’d expect double digit decrease in hatch percentage. You’ll get duckling (assuming good incubation and fertility) just a few more quitters than usual.