I think I cooked a fertile egg while trying to incubate it.

[OreoPlymothRock]

Hello, I think I cooked the baby duckling . We started incubating it with a lamp. We didn't know what temperature (I heard it is over 100 degrees F) but I put the lamp too close, I think. The Egg was to hot to hold. Did I cook it?

 

[Amiga]

You may have. I am not a hatcher, but there is a Sticky on incubating waterfowl eggs. Take a look at that. Very detailed.

I suppose you could candle it - if it's too early for that, fix the temp and humidity and candle when you are likely to see development.

 

[charlindabob]

Hello, I think I cooked the baby duckling . We started incubating it with a lamp. We didn't know what temperature (I heard it is over 100 degrees F) but I put the lamp too close, I think. The Egg was to hot to hold. Did I cook it?

Congratulations, you just made your first balut. Well, not really, if you were just starting to incubate the egg, you most certainly killed any embryo, but it isn't the same as when you have a formed duck inside. I would toss it and not attempt to incubate until I had an incubator or broody mother hen/duck. Some incubators are fairly cheap and often you can find them on Craigslist.

Also, "over a hundred degrees F", what does that mean? 101 F to molten lava? Sorry to be so blunt, but a quick internet search would tell you the correct incubation temperature for your duck eggs.

Bob......best of luck on your next attempt....

 

[OreoPlymothRock]

Yes, you can tell it is cooked by candling it, if you move the egg around, the inside doesn't move. The egg hasn't improved on developing for 5 days, so it is dead. Also, it was an embryo. And the hen moved it out of her nest and left it in the open, so we got rid of it.

Thank you Amiga and charlindabob for your quick answers.

 

[OreoPlymothRock]

But we have 6 more ducklings being incubated by a broody hen! You can see veins and embryos in every single one of them!