First time incubating duck eggs HELP !!

[Kristy82]

Oh ok so 60 % humidity through out the first 25 days is to high ????
Yes the ones that are left have a good air cell and i can see 1 or 2 have pipped through that air cell ( i think )

 

[Pyxis]

Yes, it definitely can be too high. Did you open up the ones that didn't make it to try to assess why they died? If so, did you see a lot of liquid in them?

Personally I would not go higher than 30 to 40 percent humidity for the first 25 days.

 

[Kristy82]

No i didnt open them should i ???

 

[Pyxis]

No i didnt open them should i ???

I usually open the ones that died to see what went wrong, so I can correct that my next time around So if you feel comfortable opening up the dead ones, it's not a bad idea, and it can tell you why they died.

 

[Kristy82]

Ok ... i had a couple also die at the start around 7-10 days i opened those ones and there was a formed embryo in them

 

[Kristy82]

I have just opened them up ... 1 was fully formed with no fluid just the sack still attached the other 3 were all full of fluid brown stinky stuff and were no where near the size of the other one
??? Heartbreaking

 

[Pyxis]

Sounds like the last three were early quitters and had quit a while ago. Maybe there was a temp spike in early incubation that you weren't aware of that killed them, or maybe something wasn't quite right with them so they died due to that. It's hard to say.

 

[Kristy82]

Ok thank you so much

 

[Kristy82]

One of my eggs are turning black ... does that mean its died ?? I still have not had any hatch or pip and we are half way through day 29 .... help !! I dont want to loose what i have left

 

[Pyxis]

You're on day 28, not 29, like we discussed earlier So they're not late yet.

However, since you haven't checked to make sure the temp on your incubator display is accurate, it's very possible it's been low, in which case the ducklings would be late.