emergency duck egg rescue incubation

[Ashleyponygurl]

So my husband and I went fishing today to a local pond as we made pour way around we came across a sad scene, aducks nest had been ravaged some eggs smashed a couple tossed in the water but a few salvageable eggs so we brought the unbroken few hone with us to try and give them a chance by incubating them. My incubator is reading 98.9 with 40% humidity, but my secondary thermometer to calibrate only says 93 what is the best temp to incubate them and if I post pictures of the eggs can someone help identify them? I think it may have been a 2 nest destruction cuz it looks like 2 different kinds of eggs ey all looked the same when they were muddy and a wreck but now I can definitely see what seems to be 2 different kinds of eggs

 

[WVduckchick]

I don't blame you one bit for wanting to help... only you know the situation, so I wish you the best with them.

You can probably tell if they are fertile by day 4-5, but for sure by day 7ish.
Heres a good candling chart for ducks.

Oh, best of luck with your pregnancy too!!

 

[WVduckchick]

Looks like you will get surprises if these eggs hatch! Lol. How are things going now?

 

[Orca5094]

Great news! Good luck with these guys and keep us updated!

The ducks are too small in your pic to really see what they could be, but the middle one looks like some domestic hybrid possibly?

 

[Orca5094]

That doesn't sound promising, but I would keep them in the incubator a few more days and candle again. I had one egg last year that I thought had a blood ring up around the air cell, but I am notoriously paranoid and kept it in for a few more days to be sure. When I candled it again there were veins everywhere! So, you never know.

I don't have any pics handy, but if you do a Google search for "duck egg blood ring" you'll see lots of pics of eggs with blood rings and some you can see the dark embryo in the center like you're describing. Is that what you're seeing?

Glad to hear the other 3 look good, though!

 

[WVduckchick]

I agree give it more time. Not going to hurt anything to leave them in for a while. I also had a couple that I thought were blood rings, and they proved me wrong and cleared up. I think what I was seeing was just a good strong blood vessel. When in doubt, leave it in.

 

[Orca5094]

Well I candled again tonight and I am down to 2 it looks like, I definitely saw the other 2 moving inside though which is very exciting!!!

it is day 10 so I'm hoping maybe that means these 2 are the stronger ones. I'll keep posting as I know what's going on, oh and should I crack open the dud once I've ruled it out? It looks like another blood ring but not 100% sure yet.

You won't be able to tell much with the embryo so young if you crack it open, but when you're positive it isn't alive of course you can! It's kind of interesting to see what they look like at different stages of development, too. It's when they die later on in incubation that you can sometimes tell what went wrong when you crack them open. Sometimes you'll see that the embryo got stuck to the side of the shell, or maybe see deformities in the duckling.

Sorry you seem to have lost another one, but at least those other two are still going! None of them would be alive at all if not for you.

 

[WVduckchick]

You won't be able to tell much with the embryo so young if you crack it open, but when you're positive it isn't alive of course you can! It's kind of interesting to see what they look like at different stages of development, too. It's when they die later on in incubation that you can sometimes tell what went wrong when you crack them open. Sometimes you'll see that the embryo got stuck to the side of the shell, or maybe see deformities in the duckling.

Sorry you seem to have lost another one, but at least those other two are still going! None of them would be alive at all if not for you.

x2 Good luck with the last two!

 

[KBgirls]

Thanks so much, I been messing with it all night and most of the day now I have it some what ok with the temp going up to 99 - 100 and down to 97 so its starting to get better the humility is at 45 to 50 to some times 60. I don't know I have been tapeing un-tapeing all day! No fan! The thing I don't understand is before I found out that the humitiy was way to hight the temp stayed the same 99 it would go down to 98 when I opened it but it stayed the same now that I got the humitity to some what ok the temp just want stay the same. I won't give up yet i just hope to see something when i candle on Saturday day 7! thanks again for your help !!! I will let ya know if I can get it right!

 

[WVduckchick]

? I have three duck eggs that are clearly developing at about the same rate but I have one that I can see a heartbeat but it's faint and it's not developing is quicker as the other ones is that possible or do they all develop at the same rate.? They were all put in the incubator at the same time.

They should develop fairly close I think, but so much happens on any given day, some can lag behind a little, and its really not that far apart from the others, it just looks like it to us. It may also be the angle of your viewing. You may not be seeing everything on the one that you think is behind. Some of the fluids in there are not as easy to see through. So dont worry yet!