hatching ducklings is depressing and stressful

[jfishfam]

Our weekend has gone from exciting to depressing Monday...pretty sure both of our ducklings have died in the egg without an external pip

Not sure we'll try this again.

 

[mominoz]

sorry, I am about to try for the first time, but just got a 'cracked ' incubator with my duck eggs ready in the crawlspace all dated.... and waiting....,

 

[jfishfam]

I think both of ours are dead. This is too emotional, I don't we won't try this again. I hope you have more success

 

[Emmalion]

I have 5 in the bator right now. one with some massive crackage from when the dog dropped it 3 days ago. BTW still alive and well covered in wax but doing good. 12 more days to go. They were shipped eggs with some pretty messed up aircells so only time will tell if they will hatch or not.

 

[petunias212]

I started with 18 chicken eggs, I'm on day 11 and only have 3 eggs left...some lost to scrambling, quitting, or infertile.

I know what you mean though...this is my second hatch...my first one didn't go well either....I had 24 eggs and ended up with only 3 hatching and surviving...i would have had 4 but one died after pipping and zipping a bit...i was too dumb not to know i should have helped it out at some point and maybe it would have been alive right now...

I know this is a learning experience but man, it's really sad after all the time you spend up with the eggs making sure the temp and humidity are fine - i even have bator sitter to keep an eye on my eggs when i have to leave my house...and even with that, i still call to find out what the numbers are...

...so with all this, only 3 eggs left???

 

[jfishfam]

Last night for one and this morning for the other. We broke the "rule" and kinda helped the first one have fresh air (poked a hole, carefully). No movement, no sound and too dry, what we saw. Second one stopped this morning and hasn't been heard from since, checked and think its dead too. Most heartbreaking is that they came from my son's ducks (cayuga drake and khaki duck) and what we saw showed us they would have been beautiful. I'm not sure if the incubator that we borrowed let too much moisture escape or what. We'll still give them a while longer, but this is so emotional.

 

[Crayonsmom]

Have you been opening the bator? That may be a reason for them not hatching.

I have 3 in the bator right now. Their hatch date was yesterday, but I think they're at least moving right now. I was so mad when my dad told me he opened the bator after lockdown started. But I'll have to forgive him whether they hatch or not.

 

[justmeandtheflock]

I got 2 out of 24 on my 1st hatch last year

I tried again this year and I have 6 2 week old duckling in the brooder out of 9 eggs so I did much better the 2nd time around. I have heard that lots of breeders are having a hard time this year. What kind of ducks are they?

 

[Karen09]

I have never used an incubator. I have always used a broody hen but my husband bought an incubator for me for my birthday. I have collected 8 cayuga duck eggs so far. I was wondering if after 1 week of incubating them, could I add chicken eggs to the incubator so they hatch at the same time?

 

[jfishfam]

The eggs are cayuga/khaki campbell. I've heard various ideas on whether or not to open the bator. Some spritz the eggs to keep them moist. It just seems these gave out while they were trying to hatch. So, yes we did open the bator but not until there were lots of hours without any hint of life. We were probably impatient and also the humidity didn't stay in this incubator. Maybe we should have let our runner continue to sit, but she was right in front of the door and needed to be moved.