HELP! 5 eggs from a very special duck...need help making sure they hatch!

[TREBORSKOORB]

I know this may sound odd, but I have had the honor of owning a 3 legged duck for the past 4 years. That's her in the pic below during her Ripley's Believe It Or Not photo shoot. We made it into their Dare To Look book last year.

Her parents were supposedly full-blooded Pekin, but she looks just like a Swedish Blue. (maybe a Swedish blue drake flew into the lake for a visit). I hatched her in an incubator along with her 2 siblings. A dog killed her the other night and all I have left are 5 eggs that I really hope are fertile and will hatch. Her hatch rate has been rather low I believe due to her odd anatomy, but these are the last chance to have her prodigy. I had one of her babies she hatched out last fall, but he was killed in the attack as well. The oldest egg is about 7 days old so I know time is of the essence.
I have a still air, Styrofoam incubator that has served me well, but the little cheap thermometers from the feed stores I'm afraid are just not accurate enough. It seems almost impossible to get the temp where I need it because I can barely read the variances. I put 2 in there today and one read 92 and the other 99.5. So I need to know, what type of thermometer do y'all recommend to be the most accurate. I'm tempted to put a whole bunch of them in there, but I'm afraid of many different readings and not knowing which one to trust. I recently set 2 dozen of her eggs and none of them developed. I was using the thermometer that read 99.5 but if the one that reads 92 is correct, maybe that's why they didn't develop. Not even a blood spot. Would 92 be low enough to where the embryos would not develop at all?
Also, would a small fan placed inside the incubator help or should I just use it as a still one?
Any help you can give me will be most appreciated.

 

[DemonicFowl]

In a still air incubator the center tends to be the hottest spot and gets slightly lower as you leave the center. People sometimes stick 3 thermometers in their incubator at different locations. Helps them find the sweet spot. Be gentle with the eggs, don't touch them to much and use clean hands. You don't want to remove the protective layer on the eggs. Try not to open the incubator, seriously!, unless its to fill water tunnel/turn eggs (twice a day around the same times) even so do it quickly. You know what temps you should be using and humidity? Do you know when to candle?

I'll try to find some duck incubator posts. Also have you tried posting this in the hatch a long section? Most likely to get more help.

 

[DemonicFowl]

Off site info http://www.duckhealth.com/hatcduck.html

Home site info https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/199998/what-is-the-ideal-humidity-for-hatching-in-an-incubator

Hope your babies hatch!

 

[buff goose guy]

blue swedish cant fly for standard ducks which you claim only bantam class ducks can fly those are, calls, mallards, east indie, and austrilian spotted.
now you have odd balls in the light weight class that can but most of the time not as well as mallards or any other bantam

this excludes the muscovy ducks who are heavy weight but can fly ( they are not mallard derived is the reason for this )

 

[TREBORSKOORB]

In a still air incubator the center tends to be the hottest spot and gets slightly lower as you leave the center. People sometimes stick 3 thermometers in their incubator at different locations. Helps them find the sweet spot. Be gentle with the eggs, don't touch them to much and use clean hands. You don't want to remove the protective layer on the eggs. Try not to open the incubator, seriously!, unless its to fill water tunnel/turn eggs (twice a day around the same times) even so do it quickly. You know what temps you should be using and humidity? Do you know when to candle?

I'll try to find some duck incubator posts. Also have you tried posting this in the hatch a long section? Most likely to get more help.

I'm being careful not to open too often, just to turn & add water. Yes on humidity & candlng. I used to always be very particular to not open the bator but just what is needed, but then I learned that on about day 10 for duck eggs, you should leave the top off, wait about 10 minutes, then lightly spray lukewarm water on the eggs, and then return the lid. I began doing this every other day or so during my last several hatchings and it increased the hatch rate significantly. It's supposed to replicate the momma duck getting off the nest, taking a quick swim to get a some water and bite to eat and then when she comes back, she's a little wet which is where the sprinkling of water comes from. The first time I did this, I thought for sure it would ruin the hatching, but just the opposite! Of course this is just with water fowl.

 

[TREBORSKOORB]

I was kind of joking about the "flying into the pond for a visit" part. Ha ha. I just mean you can tell she was definitely not that daddy's baby. LOL!

 

[TREBORSKOORB]

I know it's too soon to candle, but my curiosity got the best of me. 4 of the 5 eggs just appear clear but one of them has a definite ring of life with what looks like it may be the beginning of a heart beat in the middle of it. Oh, how I hope so! I don't think I've ever actually prayed over eggs to develop before, but I have this time. I want to have one of her babies so badly it hurts. She was such a special duck. Did you know that only 1 in about 250 million ducklings will hatch out with 3 legs? That's according to the museum of natural history in London. And they said fewer of those would even survive. Tripod was indeed a special duck and held a place in the hearts of thousands of her followers on Facebook. You can search Tripod The Three Legged Duck on YouTube and you'll see the many videos of her saga. Now, she awaits her final resting place which will be in one of the Ripley's museums once she has been mounted. Anyhow, I'm encouraged by this one lone egg that appears to have life in it. Hoping the others do as well, but if at least one would hatch, I would be so happy.

 

[DemonicFowl]

I know it's too soon to candle, but my curiosity got the best of me. 4 of the 5 eggs just appear clear but one of them has a definite ring of life with what looks like it may be the beginning of a heart beat in the middle of it. Oh, how I hope so! I don't think I've ever actually prayed over eggs to develop before, but I have this time. I want to have one of her babies so badly it hurts. She was such a special duck. Did you know that only 1 in about 250 million ducklings will hatch out with 3 legs? That's according to the museum of natural history in London. And they said fewer of those would even survive. Tripod was indeed a special duck and held a place in the hearts of thousands of her followers on Facebook. You can search Tripod The Three Legged Duck on YouTube and you'll see the many videos of her saga. Now, she awaits her final resting place which will be in one of the Ripley's museums once she has been mounted. Anyhow, I'm encouraged by this one lone egg that appears to have life in it. Hoping the others do as well, but if at least one would hatch, I would be so happy.

Cool. Just keep calm and relaxed. Don't let anticipation get the best of you! You don't what to do something you might regret. Hatch like you've hatched the others and it sounds like you'll do fine . I hope your hatch is successful!

 

[buff goose guy]

if your concerned about hatching ask @Lacrystol

 

[TREBORSKOORB]

Great news! We have 2 growing embryos! One thing that concerns me is that in the past, her eggs often lost moisture faster than the others. I believe this is due to the unusual anatomy of mamma duck & there's not adequate waxy coating so is it ok to keep the humidity a little higher the first couple weeks?