I don't have an incubator, but hope to hatch a couple ducklings.

[AngelinaThePekin8]

There was a male duck right?

Too many actually! Need a drake pen started up stat. Goodness these drakes, love em when they aren't chasing the poor ladies. When the younger drakes are figured out I will keep my 2 oldest drakes with the ducks. One is a senior the other is getting there.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

Well, I had a duck abandon a clutch of eggs after sitting for seven days, after a few hours I decided to candle them, found one that was alive, but at this point the egg was cold. I live off grid, no power, so I put the egg in my bra and that is where it stayed for 3 days until I could figure out what to do. I had a box of grabber hand warmers, so I used a cardboard shoebox with a handwarmer on the bottom, insulated with newfoundland hair, put the egg in there, topped it with more dog fluff, and another handwarmer on top and closed the box. I turned the egg occasionally, checked the temperature of the egg only by touch, didn't have a thermometer, best guess when to change the handwarmers, had a lot of temperature fluctuations over the course of 3 weeks, kept the box on my bed at night so anytime i woke up i could check on the egg, sometimes the egg was very warm, sometimes cool, the egg hatched successfully, she's the duck in my profile pic, she is eight years old. I think people put too much emphasis on constant temp and humidity, all I can say is nature sometimes finds a way.

Awee, so cute! Glad she has gotten so far! Hoping you can have many more good years with her!
It's easy to get caught up in the specifics. Tho I think it's mostly for the best hatch rate that it's so important to many people. I am glad I have even a cheap incubator as anything homemade would bring me to much anxiety.

 

[My15Ducks]

Yes, they all have development all looked like 9 day old incubated eggs, had veins and the like, Angelina's and another egg seemed a bit odd, Angelina's just seemed possibly slower, while the other egg had 2 dark blobs that moved around a lot when I moved the egg. Which is a little worrying. I will candle the eggs again today when I must them if I do mist them. Doing some research on the misting part still.

That’s great! If the blobs are moving while you are hold the egg still, that’s the embryo moving and normal.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

Last night I did a lot of reading and watching about candling eggs and knowing what a quitter looks like.
Today's day 14 and I candled the eggs again, all look healthy for day 14. Decent movement from the embryos, vibrant veins, air cells have grown and been marked and no visible cracks and such. Temps have generally been ideal and RH also ideal.

Since day 11 I have been cooling and misting the eggs, I have been placing them on a wash cloth outside but near the incubator. And let them cool for a little then mist and put them back in. I have only candles the eggs on day 11 and 14 now plan on another candle on day 17, would candle more frequently if I had a dedicated candler. I use my phone flashlight.

I will get photos of the marked air cells, photos are hard to get during candling or I would have some of that too.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

I got these right as the turner turned the eggs. The turner is working well, as far as I know it's turning every 2 hours.

 

[paintedChix]

I've never hatched ducks, so I'm

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

Candled the eggs again, day 17 of incubation.
All 5 are growing and moving around! I got photos of the eggs after I candled them, (to hard getting good candle photos) so you can see the marked air cells.
I also keep getting confused on what day it is. Temps and RH have been mostly consistent, I also have still been cooling and misting the eggs once everyday. My next planned candle will be around day 20 or so.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

Around 10:00 PM on the 24th day, I noticed some eggs were rocking when I cooled and misted them. I candled the eggs all five are still alive, and 2 seem to have internally pipped. Angelina's egg was rocking the most, and when candled the egg, I heard it peep! I am new to this so I am very unsure, I took the turner out after a bit of quick research and am doing normal lockdown stuff now. So nervous for the little ones big days.

It's day 25 right now, the eggs were set around 10:00 PM on the 14th of June.

What should I look out for? How do I tell if there's a distressed hatching duckling?

 

[LydiaB]

Peeping is generally heard after internal pip. Lockdown is super stressful- try to relax and let them do their thing. It can take 48 hours after external pip for them to hatch. It feels like forever! You should be able to see them breathe if they pip a big enough hole. As long as humidity is good and they are strong, they should get out on their own.

If the incubator has a steady temp adjustment, dropping temp to 98.5 is a good idea for hatching.
That’s all the advice I have, I’m new too.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

Peeping is generally heard after internal pip. Lockdown is super stressful- try to relax and let them do their thing. It can take 48 hours after external pip for them to hatch. It feels like forever! You should be able to see them breathe if they pip a big enough hole. As long as humidity is good and they are strong, they should get out on their own.

If the incubator has a steady temp adjustment, dropping temp to 98.5 is a good idea for hatching.
That’s all the advice I have, I’m new too.

Yeah, I looked up what signs to look for to know when to lockdown, and saw them all, so I put them in lockdown last night.
I am going to try for 60 RH for now, and I am gonna go for 98.5, already got it around 98.9 last night.
Right now it's at 98.0 with the styrofoam on I turned the temp setting down by 1 last night.