Hatching Baby Ducks.

[OldMcRyansFarm]

I have 9 fertilized duck eggs. We didn't have a incubator so one of our chickens has been sitting on them. Our first duck hatched prematurely and "passed". My mom caved in and bought an incubator last night that controls temperature and humidity. One of the ducks in side the egg has been pecking on the inside of the shell for two days now. It stopes last night and it wasn't moving this morning. I'm hoping it's just the "resting stage" where they absorb all of the yolk. The temperature on the incubator is set for 99.5 degrees F and it produces the humidity by little areas in the bottom where you put the water. I guess what I'm asking is do my ducklings even have a chance? I have two more that are pecking at the shell from the inside. Is the shell too hard? I know not to help them but I don't understand why the one isn't moving anymore. Thanks.

 

[gimmie birdies]

they rest alot, I wish the process would go faster too, but we must be patient. people here call it sitting on your hands.

 

[OldMcRyansFarm]

I have three eggs that have piped! I'm still worried about the one egg though even more so today because it looks like the shell almost has...craters... Like the moon I guess... (Picture above) Is this normal he was moving around last night just a little bit. I didn't get a chance to check this morning but when I candled him I didn't see any veins so I figure he may just be resting again but none of the other eggs have these wired shadow looking things on them.

 

[Aphrael]

I have three eggs that have piped! I'm still worried about the one egg though even more so today because it looks like the shell almost has...craters... Like the moon I guess... (Picture above) Is this normal he was moving around last night just a little bit. I didn't get a chance to check this morning but when I candled him I didn't see any veins so I figure he may just be resting again but none of the other eggs have these wired shadow looking things on them.

That is really strange looking. It almost looks like bruises on the shell. Did those just develop?

 

[OldMcRyansFarm]

Yes, sometime between 10pm yesterday and 4pm today. I did a little research and after examining the egg I think it could be a blood vessel that ruptured but I don't know for sure and I'm still not sure what to do with it. Should I leave it in the incubator or could it be dead?

 

[Aphrael]

I wouldn't give up on it just yet. I went and did a bit of digging and found several people reporting the same sort of thing. Some of them said the eggs turned out to be bad others said that the babies hatched and were fine. When you candled were you able to see any movement at all in that one? When I checked some of mine to see if they were still alive I held the flashlight against them and then very gently tapped the shell to see if it would move for me.

 

[OldMcRyansFarm]

Yeah it was moving a lot a few days ago then it stopped all of the sudden. Then last night it started moving just a little bit but today I didn't get anything. I candled it just a few minutes ago and there was a lot of blood in the air sack. It was starting to smell but I did the water test anyway and it sunk. I have three other eggs though that have cracked open and they've been like that since around 2pm and they haven't made any real progress since. There's not an actual hole where it's sticking it's beak out but it's cracked open and once in a while I can hear them peeping

 

[OldMcRyansFarm]

 

[OldMcRyansFarm]

Okay so I went to the store with my Aunt for a bit and when I came back to check on the ducks, this is what I saw

However at a closer look I was a little frightened by this

because our other duckling hatched prematurely. It is really cute though.

So, do you think this one will be okay the layer under the white shell was brown/tan color. I've read that it's not gods for it to be tan. I think it's having a hard time now though because it hasn't made progress yet and I don't want it to hatch if the yolk isn't fully absorbed. Is there a way to tell if it's absorbed by candling the opposite side? I'm really worried about this one because it broke my brothers heart when the last one died. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[OldMcRyansFarm]

Two have hatched!!! 3 more to go!!!