Hatching duck eggs, I think some are rotten.

[Tractormama95]

It has been 22 days I have five duck eggs that show discoloration without candling, even the air pockets are gone on some. Are they rotten or ready to hatch? Some have fluid floating around. Butt defined discoloration with naked eye! Help

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi

Posting some pics of the eggs would be great just to see what you mean. By this stage of incubation you should be able to see a well defined air sac in the egg and it should also be quite full and quite dark in them now. Discolouration is usually a sign of them being bad too but not always. Have you smelt the eggs you can usually tell if they are bad by how they smell.

 

[Tractormama95]

Some is dirt I know but you can see some discoloration topleft

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

It could be duckling filling the egg. The air cell looks quite defined through that shell. Are you using a broody for these eggs? Can you post some pics of them being candled?

 

[Orca5094]

They look like they're going bad to me, but the real test is to sniff them. Do they smell at all bad? And yes, if you could get pics of when you candle them that would also be helpful.

 

[Tractormama95]

They stink horrible

 

[Tractormama95]

Some have no air bubble when candled

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

If they stink then yes they are bad, would remove them as soon as possible.

 

[Aphrael]

Yeah, any that smell bad need to be gotten rid of ASAP, before they explode on you. I've had that happen once, and that was about 2 times too many.

It was horrid. You should smell each one individually, though. It would be a shame if you tossed any that might be viable.

 

[Orca5094]

Ok, yeah. Toss the ones that smell immediately!