Help! Why do our ducklings keep dying during hatching?

[mixedUPturk]

Other thread?


Going look now, thanks for mentioning it.

Very welcome! Do you remember seeing me around years ago? I had a bit of hiatus due to family but i remmber your sweetness!

 

[Kiki]

Very welcome! Do you remember seeing me around years ago? I had a bit of hiatus due to family but i remmber your sweetness!

Awe that's too sweet.

Let me go look...refresh my memory.
I run into a lot of people on here.

 

[tayjamieson]

Which incubator do you have?

The incubator I'm using right now "Pro Series Digital Incubator" by Farm Innovators Inc. and its circulating air with an auto egg turner (have still been hand turning the eggs daily because I read the automatic turners aren't sufficient).

 

[tayjamieson]

Yes i too live in one of those old houses the inner rooms stay warm and the outer ones cool during winter every year

Im glad i read your other thread dear, u seem very sweet and willing to do everything you can for your poultry.

Thank You so much you are so kind! I am a very caring person for all living things but you are the sweetheart for taking the time to read my threads and help me out! It means a ton, really!

 

[mixedUPturk]

Thank You so much you are so kind! I am a very caring person for all living things but you are the sweetheart for taking the time to read my threads and help me out! It means a ton, really!

Kiki too! and shes alot more up to date than i am! im just tryn to get brushed up and like to help out where i can

 

[chickens really]

Definitely need to explain what the temp and humidity was at all during the incubation. Did you lock down and stop turning the eggs?..If the eggs don't lose enough moisture the Ducklings/ Chicks drown. Air cells need to get big.

 

[RebekahTN]

From reading your post, I THINK, I am understanding that you are putting the eggs in as they hatch and you have multiple hatch dates in the incubator at the same time.... You didn't say that, but I am thinking from some of your comments that might be going on.
IF that is the case and you are bumping up the humidity when it's time for one to hatch (this comment is the one that made me most think you are doing multiple hatch dates) THIS could be a part of your problem along with the drafts.... I would save my eggs up for at least a week so you are only having to do that weekly until you get another incubator just for hatching. That way the eggs only have 3 times of raised humidity although that still amounts to at least a couple days each time, so more than ideal. I would definitely recommend a second incubator for hatching if you are doing staggered hatch dates.

 

[Animal Export]

Hello,
I'm in desperate need of some insight, I'm pretty heart broken because this morning we had our 5th duckling die during hatching. We hatched eggs about a month and a half ago and we lost a couple which I understand that the mortality rate during hatching for ducklings is roughly 20%, but this time we have lost almost all of them during hatching or incubating so I can't help but think that I am doing something wrong.

This morning I checked on a duckling that began hatching yesterday and he was awake, made it out of his shell, he however was still absorbing his yolk. We have had a few ducklings hatch with that and they survived and are healthy normal ducklings. When that happens I have special care steps I take to help them recover within 24-48 hours. So I just went to check on him and found him dead just a couple hours later. I didn't see any blood, nothing really changed at all as far as I can see so I don't understand what happened?

I'm not sure if this information is related but just in case - this time around I also have 2 eggs that have turned darkish and they are past their due date so I'm pretty sure they have died unfortunately so I will remove those eggs from the incubator, I'm not sure what happened there either.

I just now am checking the incubator temperature with another thermometer and I was a little concerned because at first when I put the thermometer inside the incubator it was reading 10 degrees cooler than what the incubator said it was. It's been about 15 minutes now and the thermometer is going up slowly so that makes me feel a little better, maybe it isn't the temperature then?

I want to add that a lot of our eggs have not been able to break the shell and hatch completely on their own. We have always had to help peel off the shell where they pipped and sometimes peel off the white layer that is under the egg shell too. We are always extremely careful when we do this and make sure we do not hit any veins and cause bleeding. We know that it's dangerous but we really do feel like they aren't able to get out on their own and we don't want them to die because they are exhausted and couldn't make it out!

Lastly we don't own a separate incubator quite yet for hatching and one for incubating eggs, so we do bump the humidity up higher than usual while an egg is hatching and we worry that it could be causing all these problems for our eggs? Also what humidity levels does everyone recommend? I find so much contradicting info online regarding humidity so it would be great to get some clarity from the pros.

Thank you everyone so much for any help, excuse me for pouring all of these questions out in one thread I hope you can forgive me! I appreciate any help you can give me and I hope everyone is having a great day.

ducklings can't walk or ea if they are born early so they die