Help..its my duck egg..

[jax]

I know this is a chicken site but i have recently been given a duck egg which was laid a few days ago. Im afraid it will die and not hatch. i have tried to make a homemade incubator but i need step by step help to do this right. im really looking forward to having this duckling hatch. I do have the egg somewhat enclosed to were there is heat and warmth from a light i have set up. I dont want to over or under heat the egg. Im trying to get the egg at around 99-100 degrees like i have read. I have been rotating the egg a couple times a day. I was told a story recently too, were this person had found duck eggs by a pond and tried to hatch them theirselves. it put me in a panic b/c they said the ducks died and the eggs had rotted. but they put their eggs in socks and by a heater. thats different from what i have but im still really worrying. i dont want to try this then weeks later find out that time was wasted and the duck died. Like i said, the egg was laid a few days ago and when i put a flashlight to the egg ive seen the air bubble thing. i know its too soon to tell if there is a duck forming in there but so far all the dark things i see in the egg is the bubble and really thin dark lines on the inside of the shell, it reminds me of veins. I hope you all can please help me. im needing to know about humidity as well. thanks.

 

[dlhunicorn]

...my honest opinion? Don't...not until you have read up a little more on how to incubate and care for the hatchling... so many things can go wrong during incubation... problems during incubation can and will damage the embryo and though most of these incubating mistakes will cause death before hatch... but sometimes they hatch with problems which can lead to a slow painful death with no chance of recovery after hatch... if you are VERY lucky it will hatch and be healthy but in this case I do not give that much of a chance since you do not have a proper incubator nor know enough to try and hatch without one. I am very sorry if this sounds harsh but I do believe in this instance you have jumped in the deep end before learning how to swim. JMHO

 

[jax]

-Sighs- I was really hoping to hatch this egg. Thanks anyway. I guess theres no hope then and i was excited over nothing now. I dont want to give up on the egg. I want to give it a try and chance. I believe in miracles and maybe i can get lucky with it. I have remade my incubator. Its made of styro foam. I have the temp to were it needs to be and humidity. I hope it works. Ive always wanted to hatch an egg. I want to give it a few more days to atleast see if anything has developed at all.

 

[kstaven]

Despite what some nay sayers would have you believe, as long as you can control the heat, humidity and keep turning the egg as needed you have a good shot at hatching it out.


People have been hatching eggs with nothing more than a pan of water and a lightbulb in a box for decades.

If you post asking for help on the egg to hatch section I am sure there are some with Duck experience who will give you some help.

 

[SkeeredChicken]

If you're already incubating it, take this time to read up on everything you can about incubation. I knew hardly anything about the subject, until I became interested and Googled everything I could about it. Since then, I have learned quite alot. If this is something you really feel you want, it would really help alot to educate yourself about what to do and what to expect.

I'm one of those people who built his own incubator. I used a 70 quart Coleman cooler (might be a tad bit big) modified with 2 recycled fans from an old PC. I couldn't really find a nice, low wattage heating element, so I opted for a duel lightbulb heating method. Along with the ether disk thermostat, it made a mean mini Titan of an incubator.

BTW, if you want, you could start here --> http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKIncubation.html. Has tons of links on home made incubators and other information, And good luck with it.