Hatching Call Ducks

[tnosidam]

Hello all, I have recently been incubating call ducks and I ran into a lot of problems during hatching. I got eight eggs off of eBay and they all arrived with no cracks but pretty wonky air cells. I let them sit large end up for 24 hours before incubating and 6 out of eight developed (one was infertile and one stopped developing after about day 2). I put them into lockdown on day 23 and they were all moving. Three ended up dying without internally or externally pipping. Two hatched with assistance on days 27 and 28 and are now doing fine. It is now day 32 and the third egg finally externally pipped yesterday but on the wrong end of the egg. I have not assisted much, just pulled some of the shell away from the hole to make sure he broke the membrane. I can see his beak and it seems like he’s still absorbing his yolk so I’m just leaving him be. Does anyone have any ideas as to why the three died and why this one is so late? Thank you in advance.

 

[floppysquirrel04]

What was your constant temp and humidity? Do you have a calibrated thermometer? What incubator are you using? Do you know how long the eggs were stored before they sent them to you? What you described usually happens to me if I have too high of humidity.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Pyxis @WVduckchick @shawluvsbirds

 

[tnosidam]

The humidity was kept between 45 and 50 the whole time and the temp was at 37.5 Celsius. Then I upped humidity to 70 and dropped temp to 37 Celsius during lockdown. I had a separate temperature/humidity gauge inside the incubator since mine doesn’t monitor humidity. I attached a picture of the incubator I have.