Help! My Momma Pekin Duck Daisy is Missing. What do I do with her Eggs?

cjones288

In the Brooder
Oct 9, 2021
20
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Hey everyone. We have a duck pair of Pekin ducks, Donald and Daisy. Daisy has laid 19 eggs and has been broody for a couple of weeks. Last night she came up missing. She was there when we went to bed, but this morning she was gone. We looked everywhere for her and she's nowhere in sight, she never usually leaves Donald's side, and since being broody, she doesn't really leave the nest at all. So I made the decision to bring her eggs in under a heat lamp, still in their nest, just in a Rubbermaid container with said light. I cannot get an incubator until Thursday, it is Saturday. I'm hoping you all can tell me what I need to do and if I should clean the eggs and what I should be looking for, for rotten or unfertile eggs. I know a little but not a lot, this is my first time dealing with ducks. We have only had them a year. I have candled them just to get a look, and most are veiny with darker areas where you can tell baby and yolk are. Most are a yellowish-orange color when I candled but there were two that were greenish, is this bad? A few were not as veiny or dark, should I take those out? I don't want any explosions of nastiness, I've dealt with that with chickens and that was not fun. Ohh, any help will be appreciated, I would hate to lose them all.
 
Can you take a picture of the candled eggs by any chance? Here is a chart from the British Waterfowl Association for comparison of what a healthy developing duck egg should look like. Do you have a thermometer that you could lay near the eggs? If they are kept under the heat lamp they should be fine until you get an incubator, but may be delayed development wise. At least 3 times a day turn all of the eggs and as far as humidity it really depends on where you live.
 

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I'm sorry guys, I was waiting on answers and then got sidetracked and forgot to check for a while. They are in a still air incubator, we happened to get it on the day that I posted this. I candled the eggs and only 9 of them were fertile and growing, the others smelled and were greenish inside when candled. So I tossed those eggs and kept the other 9. THey have been doing great. I have been doing so much research. I have kept the humidity between 50 and 60 F. The temp I have kept between 99 and 101. It alternates and I have to adjust it. I did lose one egg, it did have a small crack line when momma was attacked, I think bacteria got to it. After making sure it was gone, I cracked it open to see if there were any abnormalities, it had a full body of white feathers, little nails on its feet and the egg tooth was there. I'm not sure if this helps date the age. I have 8 eggs left. After candling this morning (ive been doing regular candling at night and in the mornings, just to keep track of their progress, especially since I dont even know how far along they are.) I noticed that the air sac dipped ALOT over night. More than any time before. (picture below). Im still not sure how far along they are, I wasnt keeping track when Daisy started nesting, I just thought Id let nature take its course, which now Ive obviously had to intervene. I dont want to mess up the hatching so if anyone could age them by the pictures (there are two different eggs)that would be so helpful. I want to make sure I do the humidity right when they start pipping. Should I stop turning them now or wait? I THINK they are around day 18-20 from my observations of other candled eggs on google. What do you yall think?
 

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Just another update. Air sacs are even bigger today. Two of the 8 look like theyre ready to start hatching but the other ones look like theyre a few days behind. Not sure if I should go into lockdown yet or not. If somone could look at the picture of the eggs and age them for me that would be appreciated. I dont want to start lockdown too early or too late. I dont know if that has a big impact on hatchability or not.
 

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