Hatching Duck Eggs now and need help.

[marnie]

We have duck eggs and they're past due. One started to break the shell (is that called "pip") on Sunday and made a strip about an 1 1/2" long but then stopped and we think it died. We haven't opened the egg. Then today another one broke the shell and made about a 1/2" hole. It was peeping and moving but couldn't get any further. We were told that if it doesn't progress for 12 hours to help open the shell. So we broke some pieces of the shell off and now I'm here, writing. It seems to be having trouble breaking more of the membrane, but I don't think I should break the membrane as it might hurt the duck. Any suggestions? BTW, there are two more that have made tiny holes but we don't see the duck yet.

Thanks.

 

[Kittymomma]

I'm afraid you won't get too many responses this time of night. I'm heading to bed myself but I'll try. What is your humidity at? Humidity needs vary from area to area, but it sounds like your ducklings may be getting shrink wrapped or be weak from too low a temp. Get the humidity up to 65-70% and if you're using a still air the temp should be around 101 at the top of the eggs and I think forced air is 99.5. You can boost humidity by soaking a maxi pad in hot water and placing it in the bator, a sponge will also work.

Opening the bator drops your temp and humidity and can endanger the ducklings that are trying to hatch. If you have to do it take the bator into a bathroom and crank the heat up and run the shower on hot. This will minimize your temp and humidity loss. Chicks and ducklings can often take 24 hours from pip to hatch so I think helping after only 12 hours is more likely to hurt--often times the chick/duckling will not have completly absorbed the yolk and/or there will still be a lot of active veins in the membrane that can cause the chick/duckling to bleed to death if they are ruptured.

Good luck!

 

[marnie]

Thanks for the response. We've had the temperature at 98.6 - 99. The hatchery told us to keep it at 98.5 for hatching. It was to be higher before the last few days, which it was. The humidity has been at 70% consistently, until today when we opened it to do what we did. We removed the first egg and opened it and the duck had indeed died. We'll put a sponge in there to keep the humidity up and make sure we don't open it again, unless we need to add water. When we chipped the shell we did see veins in the membrane so I'm glad we didn't break the membrane more than it already was from the duck. I've been reading more about this on the website tonight. We'll just be patient from here on out and let them do their thing. Thanks again.

 

[Kittymomma]

How's the hatch going? Did you get any little fuzzy butts?

 

[4-H chicken mom]

 

[Kittymomma]

Anything?

 

[marnie]

I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. I was having trouble logging in, had to get a new pw, and then trouble finding my post. Can you tell I'm new to forums?

I'm going to try to attach pictures. This is Peepers, which is the duck I was asking about. He's so adorable; we just love him.

We had another duck whose beak was sticking out. I had read many posts to not help and just let nature take it's course. He didn't get very far and died. We have four more eggs that are still not hatched. They are at 36 days and we were told by the hatchery that they would hatch at 28. How long should I wait before opening them? We feel it's likely they have died, yet others say it can take as long as 40 days.

What to do?

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
Gosh, I'm not sure. I'm on my first duck hatch now, 11 eggs that I started in the bator and then put under one of my BA's that went broody. At least one of them has hatched, and I think it's early, but wrote the dates down using dh's laptop and it's in Arizona. It seems like I've read that some types of ducks can take longer to hatch then others even though officialy it's 28 days for all but the Muskovy's. Maybe you could add the type of ducklings that you're trying to hatch and perhaps post in the duck forum as well.

 

[marnie]

Peepers - our first duck