i have to confess to having the luckiest ducks in the world!

[quetsweyo]

i have to confess that after reading all i have about incubating and hatching eggs i have no idea how i succeeded. never did it before, didnt have on incubator. found 4 eggs in an abandoned nest in the mulch around the trees out side galyans,with my box of .45 rifle slugs. immediately lost what was left of my mind. scooped up eggs and tucked 2 apiece into my fleece-lined pigskin mittens. raced home, put eggs where they'd be safe from dogs and cats...called around then speed down to tsc to by cheep-o 42$ incubator. read what i could on internet at library then speed home. had plugged in 'bator before i left, spent a couple hours adjustin it. closest i could get as 99.8. or up to 102.5. filled water resevoirs, put in old humidity gauge after wiping it down w/alcohol and put in eggs, marked on one side w/pencil x. turned egg 3-5 time a day. had A LOT of trouble maintaining temp...nor air conditioning or dehumidifiers, just fan and windows. visisted eggs 20-30 times a day. candled after 7...BLOOD VESSELS!!! in all four. turned & candled, thrilled to death to see little dark spots develop and then start rockin an' rollin. sadly egg #3 stopped moving & contents went dark. cant remember, think it was about 3 weeks eggs started rocking, every onece & a while heard a faint cheep. one day, the 24th of incubation went in to turn & there was a little crack bulging out on one & i could hear peeping. got my blunt tweezers, dipped in alcohol & dried. gently picked at shell until bits removed. slight tear in membrane. lightly blew in hole and chik squrimed & peeped. set it back in incubator and managed to stay out of the room a whole 10 minutes. in&out checking constantly,COULD NOT STAY AWAY ORthere LEAVE EGG ALONE. AFTER A HOUR NOTHING HAD HAPPEND SO I ST did each egg this way over a two-day stARTED PICKING LOOSE SHELL AWAY FROM THE PIP-HOLE, BLOWING IN AND GETTING PIIPED AT. AS the shell went the membrane inside drew back and freed up more shell to pick away, until i came to a blood vessel and a drop of blood oozed out. dabbed it with a q-tip and held it there until it stopped. went away for about an hour. came back and started piciking again, drop of blood, q-tip, repeat. up all night, in frequently, blowing in hole and being talked to. eventually got half of shell off. sad little mess inside, struggling now and eventually wiggle most of way out of shell. it was pooped and napped on and off. all three the same way. (Had poked hole in air sack end of dark eggl, pickd off enuff shell to see a very unpleasant lifeless brown mess. took it out side and cracked, poured out contents and found a tiny embryo about the size of a pinkie finger nail w/o legs that had died. buried it right there next to rose bush. managed to leave other 3 alone until they rested and wiggled out a little further. still had some yolk to absorb and 'umbilical' so stayed in icubator until freed themselves. then they had another long nap and started to dry out. had tub lined with bath towels and light bulb at 95F and put them under light to nap and dry coz incubator was a damp mess. they all survived, grew fast, are great birds, mallards, by the way. After reading your pages on incubating and hatching i wonder how i avoided killing them. coz when i ordered 11 eggs from metzer farms i did it the same way, two of their eggs came with small half inch cracks in the shell that werent oozing and i called them and the 'person' told me to put super glue on the cracks. i did, and one of the glued eggs actually hatched succesfully! eight of the 11 eggs hatched and lived to adulthood. i dont know if ill incubate again coz i cant stand by and wait for them to do it all themselves. i read about eggs pipping and then nothing...i would have to go in after them at any stage. as far as letting them die because they are not strong enough to breed good stock from, i am not interested in that. i am not growing them to start a chichen/duck empire, they're pets and egg layers, friends and entertainment for me. i am going to read more in the incubating and hatching section to see what else i can learn to help them out of their shell related predicaments. keep the info coming, quetsweyo, chief of lost causes

 

[Ceinwyn]

Congrats on the little ones.
Highly recommend reading this guide.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=491013
not only excellent for step by step instructions but explains what is happening inside the egg and what to watch for to avoid problems.
Good luck to you with your new addiction.