Help! Air cell’s too small but duckling’s still Alive trying to pip!

[New duck mommy 2021]

Ok I’ve removed it - there’s blood where it was, I wiped it but some of it is still there, so I moved the eggs as far away from that area as possible, I didn’t want to risk the other eggs by opening the incubator and trying to clean it out, or should I have done that? Regarding calibrating the meter, should I use the incubator for reference rather than the meter and just use that for humidity in that case? And of the other eggs is there any that I’m also better off removing at this point all of them apart from the two Moving one’s look hopeless and I think they should have filled the whole egg by now but none of them have done that.

And yes I did, and it changes positions so the eggs are definitely rotating (worked out the right seconds to rotate properly)

I had one that honestly didn’t look good I thought it was not going to make it meh is 2 weeks today
His siblings hatched at day 26-27 he was day 29
With really high humidity they would not fill in as much as they should because they aren’t loosing what they should be
This could cause delays in hatch time
If you candle from the air cell and keep the egg still you should see movement of a baby and good veins.
Duck eggs can ge taken out once a day for 5-10 mins to cool down also misted with warm water so you could remove them and clean the blood with just water. Don’t use any chemical
How did the egg bleed ?
I would keep the humidity around 40-45 now for the next 5-6 days and hope they loose more liquid

 

[Croissant]

Oh ok I’ll do that

I had one that honestly didn’t look good I thought it was not going to make it meh is 2 weeks today
His siblings hatched at day 26-27 he was day 29
With really high humidity they would not fill in as much as they should because they aren’t loosing what they should be
This could cause delays in hatch time
If you candle from the air cell and keep the egg still you should see movement of a baby and good veins.
Duck eggs can ge taken out once a day for 5-10 mins to cool down also misted with warm water so you could remove them and clean the blood with just water. Don’t use any chemical
How did the egg bleed ?
I would keep the humidity around 40-45 now for the next 5-6 days and hope they loose more liquid

Oh ok I’ll do that! I never actually misted them with water because I heard it can cause bacteria to get through the egg, maybe I should’ve done that. I’ll take the eggs out tomorrow though as I’ve messed with them too much today and I’m worried it’ll impact the living ones with all the fluctuations.

I’m not sure how the egg bled, there wasn’t any cracks or anything, but it was wet with really diluted blood and that was all over the egg, plus a really bad smell most probably from the blood, and that’s why I’m worried with the others they might do the same thing, I have the living ones on one row and the others that I’m not sure about spaced a little away from them just in case because I also can’t see any movement at all with the remaining eggs, and with one, on the liquid bit that hasn’t filled out yet, there are these slightly darker areas that swish around as I rotate the egg, I don’t know if that means the duckling is dead?

And I also can’t see veins apart from one egg that has a tiny single one in the see through liquid one. I’ve been looking online watching other people go through dead and alive eggs and they sort of look like the dead ones to me with how they’re a dark mass on one side of the egg, pulled back from the air cell and no visible veins at least as far as I can see.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Oh ok I’ll do that

Oh ok I’ll do that! I never actually misted them with water because I heard it can cause bacteria to get through the egg, maybe I should’ve done that. I’ll take the eggs out tomorrow though as I’ve messed with them too much today and I’m worried it’ll impact the living ones with all the fluctuations.

I’m not sure how the egg bled, there wasn’t any cracks or anything, but it was wet with really diluted blood and that was all over the egg, plus a really bad smell most probably from the blood, and that’s why I’m worried with the others they might do the same thing, I have the living ones on one row and the others that I’m not sure about spaced a little away from them just in case because I also can’t see any movement at all with the remaining eggs, and with one, on the liquid bit that hasn’t filled out yet, there are these slightly darker areas that swish around as I rotate the egg, I don’t know if that means the duckling is dead?

And I also can’t see veins apart from one egg that has a tiny single one in the see through liquid one. I’ve been looking online watching other people go through dead and alive eggs and they sort of look like the dead ones to me with how they’re a dark mass on one side of the egg, pulled back from the air cell and no visible veins at least as far as I can see.

I wouldn’t wait to wipe down the bator
That liquid was sleeping from the rotten egg. That will cause bacteria to the live ones
I would also remove the others that are dead
You would see lots of veins even if the egg wasn’t filled in. An egg exploding will be really bad for you
This was my egg that didn’t look great to me but look at how strong the veins still were
Baby was also moving not a blob swinging around but actual baby movements

 

[Croissant]

I wouldn’t wait to wipe down the bator
That liquid was sleeping from the rotten egg. That will cause bacteria to the live ones
I would also remove the others that are dead
You would see lots of veins even if the egg wasn’t filled in. An egg exploding will be really bad for you
This was my egg that didn’t look great to me but look at how strong the veins still were
Baby was also moving not a blob swinging around but actual baby movements

Oh ok I’ll do that now then - and yeah I think it’s for the best to remove the others, I can’t see the outline of the duckling anymore nor the veins or anything, it looks like a dispersed mass in a sense now. Hatching my other two ducklings went without a hitch without me worrying about temperature, humidity etc as their air cell decreased a fair amount aside from one that didn’t shrink enough (2/3 made it) but even then it was okay so I don’t really understand what went wrong - did the incubator stop working properly the second time round? Or having more eggs meant that the environment inside was much more different.

 

[Croissant]

I wouldn’t wait to wipe down the bator
That liquid was sleeping from the rotten egg. That will cause bacteria to the live ones
I would also remove the others that are dead
You would see lots of veins even if the egg wasn’t filled in. An egg exploding will be really bad for you
This was my egg that didn’t look great to me but look at how strong the veins still were
Baby was also moving not a blob swinging around but actual baby movements

Oh I just realised! Wouldn’t misting the eggs now cause more problems since the eggs aren’t losing moisture as is?

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Oh I just realised! Wouldn’t misting the eggs now cause more problems since the eggs aren’t losing moisture as is?

Yes I wouldn’t do the misting of them now
But next time you incubate you can keep lower humidity and cool / mist the eggs day 10-24
Lockdown day 25 with higher humidity
But you can still take them out to cool down for 5 mins
They almost look like they weren’t turned that’s why I question your turner if it was working
I don’t use turner as I don’t trust them
I like to hand turn mine and have them lay in the natural position of laying on sides
My last batch I let the kindergarten class do it and they used my turner as nobody is there on weekends. The teacher would go on once a day to check but not 3-5 for a normal turn
I didn’t like how the eggs looked from that upright turner and baby 5 had 2 air cells
These were not shipped eggs they were my ducks eggs
We did get 100 % hatch rate but baby 5 does have neck issues and bone and muscles are thinner then they should be. This is do to both ends blocked leaving him only the middle to try and grow
We’re your eggs shipped Either time ?
Was the seasons different for natural humidity / temps then last time
Many things can come into factor and change things up from each hatch
possible the rotten egg has been leaking for a bit and caused bacteria to other eggs
Just trying to think of different things that could play a roll in it

 

[BelovedBirds]

I can’t see any movement and there’s that darker but moving where the light goes through:
View attachment 3063124View attachment 3063126

I can’t see any movement but there are little veins in the part where the light goes through again for this kne:
View attachment 3063127
These two are alive because I saw movements and veins:
View attachment 3063129View attachment 3063131
And second:
View attachment 3063132View attachment 3063133

This one has the same issue as the others where I can’t see anything
View attachment 3063134View attachment 3063135

It’s day 20, no further development in either of the air cells. The weird thing is they’ve all only taken up part of the egg rather than the whole egg, even though they get rotated every two hours automatically.

if you can't see veins, or movement then those eggs have sadly died. The last photos, of the ones you still see veins look good to me

 

[WVduckchick]

Oh I just realised! Wouldn’t misting the eggs now cause more problems since the eggs aren’t losing moisture as is?

Misting seems backwards, yes, but as the mist evaporates from the egg, it also draws out internal moisture as the shell dries.

 

[Croissant]

Yes I wouldn’t do the misting of them now
But next time you incubate you can keep lower humidity and cool / mist the eggs day 10-24
Lockdown day 25 with higher humidity
But you can still take them out to cool down for 5 mins
They almost look like they weren’t turned that’s why I question your turner if it was working
I don’t use turner as I don’t trust them
I like to hand turn mine and have them lay in the natural position of laying on sides
My last batch I let the kindergarten class do it and they used my turner as nobody is there on weekends. The teacher would go on once a day to check but not 3-5 for a normal turn
I didn’t like how the eggs looked from that upright turner and baby 5 had 2 air cells
These were not shipped eggs they were my ducks eggs
We did get 100 % hatch rate but baby 5 does have neck issues and bone and muscles are thinner then they should be. This is do to both ends blocked leaving him only the middle to try and grow
We’re your eggs shipped Either time ?
Was the seasons different for natural humidity / temps then last time
Many things can come into factor and change things up from each hatch
possible the rotten egg has been leaking for a bit and caused bacteria to other eggs
Just trying to think of different things that could play a roll in it

The eggs i incubated weren’t shipped - got them off of someone, and they lay flat rather than upright, rotating when the every two hours. If I rotate eggs by hand from now on, how often should I do this in terms of hours? And in terms of the season I don’t think the temperatures are are drastically different, it’s sunnier than last month but still relatively cold here.

if you can't see veins, or movement then those eggs have sadly died. The last photos, of the ones you still see veins look good to me

Well I’m glad at least two eggs are still looking good, the air cell and the fact that they aren’t receding at all worry me though, I avoided topping the water tray to keep the humidity low and woke up to 20% and misted the eggs with a little bit of water and added a bit of water as well now, and the humidity is at 62% but the air cell didn’t reduce at all despite the drop in terms of humidity or lowered humidity in general.

Misting seems backwards, yes, but as the mist evaporates from the egg, it also draws out internal moisture as the shell dries.

Oh I didn’t realise that, so should I mist the eggs for the remaining days and during lockdown as well? Or mist them till day 24 and leave them in the incubator with topped water levels, not touching them at all? The humidity is at 62% without me topping the tray all the way. Might’ve only did about half.

I’m praying these two eggs make it and are either both girls or only one of them is a boy though so I can keep them both

 

[Miss Lydia]

@WVduckchick