I candled my pekin duck eggs, are they fertile?

[Miss Lydia]

Hatch day is a few days after Xmas, maybe even sooner

And I wipe them off carefully with a paper towel.

Also.... I was really worried today when my hubby called and said power went out at some point while we were at work. Based on the blinking clocks, he estimated it was 5hrs of no power!!!!! I Was so nervous that the duckies would get cold and die :'( power went on automatically on the incubator whenever it did come back and the temp was normal.
but it does worry me.... will they be ok??

I think I'd candle a few and check on status of them. how cold was your house during this time? or take a few at a time out and candle them all.

 

[StitchMyStars6]

Generally its at a temp between 68° & 72° in the house. Hope they're ok maybe my kitty was nice enough to get cozy ontop the incubator like she did once before haha! Although that's not enough to actually keep them warm...

 

[Miss Lydia]

Generally its at a temp between 68° & 72° in the house. Hope they're ok

maybe my kitty was nice enough to get cozy ontop the incubator like she did once before haha! Although that's not enough to actually keep them warm...

I know if they were mine I'd have to candle but please don't just take my ideas without maybe someone more experienced with bators, My Scovy ducks hatch out all ducklings here. It would be hard for me not to know they are all okay. Just be sure to monitor your humidity and temp if you decide so they don't have another drastic drop.

 

[StitchMyStars6]

Thank you very much. I appreciate everything ^_^ I'll keep a close eye on the kiddos!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thank you very much. I appreciate everything ^_^ I'll keep a close eye on the kiddos!

When you decide what your going to do candle or not please post I'd like to know they are okay too.

 

[StitchMyStars6]

Oky doky! Will do

 

[StitchMyStars6]

Hearts are beating and feet are kickin!! All the duckies are ok!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hearts are beating and feet are kickin!! All the duckies are ok!

 

[learycow]

Hearts are beating and feet are kickin!! All the duckies are ok!

Yay!
Usually a power outage won't harm them unless it's off long enough for the incubator temp to drop drastically (below 95 degrees). That's when it will generally start to affect them.

 

[learycow]

I am brand new, both here and to ducks, so my knowledge is more limited than yours, but I do have a question for you. Are you cleaning that egg with water? I'm pretty sure that's a bad thing to do if you're intending incubation, because it washes off a coating that is vital to the egg's development. In fac, even wiping it off might do harm.

There is a lot of information out there on this matter. But you need to find what works best for you.

From my experience (I've been incubator hatching eggs for over 6 years) do NOT use the excessively dirty eggs. Dirty eggs let off bacteria into the warm incubator. SInce eggs are pourus, they can absorb the bacteria which can result in early embryonic death or ducklings that hatch and then get sick and die.

Some people will use a dry cloth or papertowel and try to get all the loose dirt off the eggs.
Some people wash them completely.
Some people will not touch them at all, simply put them in the incubator the way they are.

I always keep dry, clean bedding where the duck will nest or lay. That way the eggs are usually clean and don't require any washing or wiping.
However, I know that sometimes this is not possible!
For the slightly dirty eggs, I wipe with a dry towel. If I can't get everything off, then I run them under LUKE WARM water and wipe with a wet paper towel. Then I set them at room temp (65-70) to dry.
For me, this has always worked. I get an 80-100% hatch rate with almost every batch I incubate.

I did experiment and did a small batch of 8 eggs that were DIRTY DIRTY.
All developed, as expected.
7 hatched (1 had early death). Of the 7, 1 acted weak for the first few weeks but then got better. The rest were perfectly fine. So you can incubate dirty eggs, but I wouldn't recommend it.