First Time - Hatching Duck Eggs

[Mudstar4ever]

Hi all -
Excited to officially meet you all! I'm relatively new to the Backyard Chickens community (technically joined in 2011, more on that later). I'm back home with my parents riding out this shelter-in-place in northern California and my project this spring is to hatch and raise a duckling or two. I would say I'm totally new to this and excited to have community support as I navigate the unknown!

I ordered the Magicfly Digital Mini Fully Automatic Egg Incubator on Amazon and am scheduled to receive it this Saturday / Sunday, of which I'm also driving to a local farm to purchase my two duck eggs. It seems like it got great reviews, so I'm excited to try it out! Has anyone had any experience with this incubator and have any tips / tricks for working it?

I'll continue to keep this thread updated, but excited to swap insights with everyone!

P.S.
My background with raising waterfowl - 13 years ago I found a goose egg half-submerged in our pond next to a nest that had been slain by a raccoon . I literally put that egg under a lamp for a week before we did a little homework and bought a Little Giants incubator from Ace Hardware. With zero experience at all, lo and behold, that darn thing hatched and I had the amazing experience of raising a little gosling for a few months before we found another home for him. In retrospect, the stars must have aligned for that little guy, because now that I've done a little research, there were so many reasons why he should not have survived (a desk lamp? Really?) but he was truly a miracle and I would love to re-create the experience - a little smarter now!

 

[Mudstar4ever]

Hi all - Excited to follow up with some updates from the last few days. Would love to have some friends to follow along in the journey with me. Picked up the eggs on Saturday - not quite sure yet what breeds I ended up with, but they were freshly laid that morning. The woman I purchased the eggs from told me her breeds included Cayuga, Blue and Silver Swedish, and Fawn / White Indian Runner. Guessing by the color of the eggs and the slightly taller one on the right, I'm guessing I have a Silver Swedish and a Runner. But that's just a guess.

Stored them large-side up for about 40 hours at 55-60 degrees while I fired up the incubator and then set them at 5pm on Sunday. Below are the Day 1 candling (I couldn't resist!) Unsurprisingly - unremarkable.

Skipped Day 2, but candled again tonight for the official Day 3 and I'm shocked by how quickly the "Runner" egg has grown in such a short amount of time! (Is he growing "too" quickly - is that a thing?) Below are a couple pictures of the same egg, one edited to highlight those beautiful veins!

Nothing to see yet in the second egg (note: I switched flashlights which is why they eggs look red now). Think it's still too soon to tell, but hopefully we see some development there too!

 

[kandyg_99]

Good Luck With Your Eggs , Happy Hatching...

 

[Mudstar4ever]

Hiii! Day 4 candling pics below! The "runner" egg is right on track doing great! Still not seeing anything in the other one, though there was definitely a larger mass on one side, though it may just be the yolk. Though it didn't move when I turned the egg, so I don't know. Could still be early!

 

[Mudstar4ever]

Day 5 - looking terrific!!

I don’t think the other egg is fertilized. I haven’t seen anything at all! I won’t take it out until Day 10, but it’s not looking too promising. Sigh.

 

[LeggoMyMeggo]

Hi! I am definitely following how you do with your eggs. We put 7 magpie eggs in our incubator about 4 weeks ago, first time trying with ducks too! We have 1 guy completely out so far. I hope it all goes well for you. Looks like a promising start!

 

[Mudstar4ever]

@LeggoMyMeggo , he's beautiful!! Good luck with the rest of your hatch! Excited to hear how they all turn out.

 

[Mudstar4ever]

I’m so sad to say, looks like I lost him.

That’s the telltale sign of a blood ring, yes? His veins are receding and the venter of the embryo is gone. And the other still shows no sign of life, so I think I’m back to the drawing board.

 

[Knighstar679]

I’m so sad to say, looks like I lost him.
View attachment 2108396View attachment 2108398
That’s the telltale sign of a blood ring, yes? His veins are receding and the venter of the embryo is gone. And the other still shows no sign of life, so I think I’m back to the drawing board.

I wouldn't toss it just yet. I had an egg that did something similar last time. It looked blood ringed then a few days later it was going strong with a little dancing duckling in the egg. Your not super far into your incubation on that egg. I would give it two days check again if it doesn't seem better then yes it did blood ring on you. Hopefully it is just the egg being strange and the embryo being deep in the egg right now like mine was.

 

[Mudstar4ever]

Thanks so much for the words of encouragement! Definitely bummed and hoping I can correct it the next time around (trying to diagnose what may have gone wrong...) I’ll hang onto him for a few days to see what happens, but in the meantime I’m in the market for some new local eggs to see if I can start over.
Definitely think the center embryo is gone, but to your point, maybe he just disappeared? I’m not sure... :/