End of day 28 - Keep calm or panic?

[Jtking3000]

First time incubating and I'm not sure if I should be more patient. On the 23rd of March around 4pm I started incubating 15 Cayuga duck eggs, which would make today day 28. After candling at days 9 and 15 I removed 3 infertile and 3 'duds'. The rest had veins and appeared to move a bit in response to the light. The temperature has been at 37.5 degrees Celsius and the humidity at around 60% until the 19th where I stop turning the eggs and bumped up the humidity as much as I can (around 70%).

I don't think I can see any external pips in any of the eggs which is making me worried that I won't get any ducklings. How long should I wait before breaking the lockdown to see if the eggs are still alive? Should I candle and do the water float tests?

 

[SpicyDill]

If today is hatch day, I'd probably give them a couple more days! I don't have experience with ducks, but I know that chickens can sometimes hatch up to a few days late.

 

[WVduckchick]

Absolutely do not float them in water. Candling should tell you anything you need to know.

Shine your flashlight across the eggs very carefully, as sometimes pips can be difficult to detect.
Which incubator are you using? Has the temperature been fairly consistent?

Personally I would candle to look for drawdown. The air cells should change shape from a regular oval as the ducklings get into hatching position. This is the first sign, prior to internal pip and external pip.

 

[Jtking3000]

Absolutely do not float them in water. Candling should tell you anything you need to know.

Shine your flashlight across the eggs very carefully, as sometimes pips can be difficult to detect.
Which incubator are you using? Has the temperature been fairly consistent?

Personally I would candle to look for drawdown. The air cells should change shape from a regular oval as the ducklings get into hatching position. This is the first sign, prior to internal pip and external pip.
View attachment 2628904

I'm using an HHD Mini 24. The temperature variance is something that has had me concerned as I've had the temperature alarm go off a couple times over the past week to say that it's too hot (Around 39 degrees). I've always rectified it within a few minutes but I do question how accurate the temperature reading is as it seemed odd why the reading would randomly spike.

I've tried shining a flashlight from the outside of the incubator but I can't really get the air cell to light up like in your photo. The eggs are too dark.

 

[Jtking3000]

Y'know I think it is because my incubator is a crappy Chinese one. I gave in and opened it just now and it actually felt kind of hot, not luke warm. I also candled some of the eggs and it seems like they probably died a few days after I last candled them.

Incredibly frustrating for a first time experience. I would've bought a better incubator but I couldn't find one in any of the local stores and the online shops only had incubators from this company. I guess I will start searching for a thermometer and maybe even a new incubator...

Any suggestions for what type of thermometer I should get to check if the incubator reading is correct?

 

[SpicyDill]

Y'know I think it is because my incubator is a crappy Chinese one. I gave in and opened it just now and it actually felt kind of hot, not luke warm. I also candled some of the eggs and it seems like they probably died a few days after I last candled them.

Incredibly frustrating for a first time experience. I would've bought a better incubator but I couldn't find one in any of the local stores and the online shops only had incubators from this company. I guess I will start searching for a thermometer and maybe even a new incubator...

Any suggestions for what type of thermometer I should get to check if the incubator reading is correct?

I'm so sorry! My last hatch was a disaster because of my crappy incubator. I bit the bullet and bought a nicer one.

As far as thermometers go, I've been really pleased with my bluetooth Govee. I calibrated for temperature and humidity and it was pretty accurate straight from the box (spot on for temperature, half a percentage off for humidity, but the company told me +/- 3 percent is normal deviation, so half a percent off isn't bad!)

 

[Jtking3000]

I'm so sorry! My last hatch was a disaster because of my crappy incubator. I bit the bullet and bought a nicer one.

As far as thermometers go, I've been really pleased with my bluetooth Govee. I calibrated for temperature and humidity and it was pretty accurate straight from the box (spot on for temperature, half a percentage off for humidity, but the company told me +/- 3 percent is normal deviation, so half a percent off isn't bad!)

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll have a look to see if I can get one where I am.

 

[Jtking3000]

I bought one of those analogue thermometers with a red line to represent the temperature as my local shops didn't have anything better (I live in a remote Bulgarian village). The incubator's thermometer consistently read higher than the analogue one when I tested it at 28, 30, 32, 35 and 37.5 degrees Celsius. The largest difference was at 37.5 degrees where it measured over 40, and the lowest at 28 degrees where it measured at 29 degrees on the analogue thermometer. I tested the the analogue one in an ice bath and it gave a reading of 1 degree Celsius so I guess that suggests my incubator is probably a couple degrees too hot at standard incubation temperature.

Given that I had a couple alarms in the final week saying that the temperature was above 39 degrees that would imply in reality the incubator went up to 41 degrees. No wonder my eggs died!