HELP PLEASE-Humidity too high? Wiggling duck eggs

[Lacrystol]

Thank you so much for your help and advice. I've dropped the humidity completely and will keep candling them until the air cell drops and let you know what they look like when I do. I'll make sure to let you know if there is any spaces that are yellow or not totally dark at the other end on that day.

They are Welsh Harlequins and I am feeling awful that I've made this mistake that will likely end up killing most if not all of them!

Really appreciate your help on this! And will let you know what I see on day 25.

I wouldn't look at it like a Killing mistake, I would look at it more like a Learning progress, because from her on, you can ONLY get better. Just don't let this one hatching stop you from trying again. But we don't know whats going on yet so Lets keep happy thoughts...

 

[kromanin]

I didn't get a chance to keep updates while everything was happening but thought I should post an update as to how it all turned out and sum up my issue in case it can help anyone else in the future:

On day 23 I realized my mistake of keeping the humidity at 80-85% through the incubation period. When candling them on day 23 the air cell was only as big as what it should have been on day 14. On day 23 there were only 5 eggs that were still alive out of the original 9.

So that day I dropped the humidity down as low as possible which was about 20% on my hygrometer. The air cell started getting bigger quite quickly. I held off putting them in lock-down for one extra day (on day 26 instead of day 25) so that the air cell could keep getting bigger and it ended up dropping and being the size it should be according to the diagram I was using.

Then 3 ducklings hatched on day 29 and the other 2 hatched on day 30! Having all 5 hatch without assistance and not being sticky was very exciting!

Unfortunately there are 4 males and only 1 female (Welsh Harlequin ducklings can be sexed by bill color right after hatching) and we are wanting egg layers so we've set a new batch of eggs. This time I'll keep the humidity down to where it should be and watch the air cell development.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Lacrystol]

OMG< what are the ODDS????

 

[Selahlove]

We have an incubator we put duck eggs in at different times throughout this month of March just had two or three in for about 25 days three or four in about 15 days and two or three in about three or four days for realizing we made a mistake. Which one should we do from here because we’re supposed to increase the humidity for the few that are in that are supposed to hatch. We thought about getting another incubator. Please help!