Incubation Help

[kcrumpy1]

As you are a teacher you might appreciate an explanation. There are two main reasons you turn the eggs. First is to keep the yolk and developing embryo from touching the inside of the porous shell. If they touch they can get stuck, which would be fatal. The other reason is that turning them helps the body parts to form in the right places. I don't hatch ducks, just chickens and an occasional turkey. But with chicken eggs by 14 days a membrane has formed around the embryo to protect it from that porous egg shell. That's a good thing because soon the embryo will be so big it will touch. And by 14 days the body parts have formed wherever they are going to form. So with chicken eggs you don't need to turn them after 14 days.

I don't know how that translates to duck eggs but I'd personally be quite comfortable stopping turning them after 25 days, the normal time you would for the 28 day eggs. I think Casportpony is heading a different, more scientific direction. I'll stay tuned.

Thak you!!

 

[kcrumpy1]

Any time after day 22-23 for mallard-derived ducks, is safe to stop turning, in my opinion.

I believe I would try to determine if any of the eggs are muscovies, because they would probably need to be turned a bit longer. Development should be comparatively less by day 24-25ish, so hopefully it would be obvious that some eggs have 10 or so days to go.

Thank you

 

[Ridgerunner]

@casportpony you surprised me. I thought you were heading toward candling to determine development and separating them that way, much like WVduckchick.

Kcrumpy1 it sounds like you probably have a staggered hatch. Those can be stressful on different levels, other than the turning and humidity issues. The first that hatch will crawl all over the unhatched eggs, pooping on them and possibly getting them slimy before the newly hatched dry off. That can also get the incubator to stinking after a few days. I hate staggered hatches but you are where you are.

If you can identify the earlier hatches and depending on what your incubator looks like, some people make an open-topped box out of hardware cloth and invert that over the early eggs so they can't mess up the later eggs. Or use the mesh baskets fruit might come in. Or something similar.

You might put a towel or something under those eggs so you can clean the hatch mess up when you remove the first ducklings. That might help enough.

Hopefully there is not that much difference in them and they will all hatch within a reasonable time frame. Good luck!!!

 

[kcrumpy1]

@casportpony you surprised me. I thought you were heading toward candling to determine development and separating them that way, much like WVduckchick.

Kcrumpy1 it sounds like you probably have a staggered hatch. Those can be stressful on different levels, other than the turning and humidity issues. The first that hatch will crawl all over the unhatched eggs, pooping on them and possibly getting them slimy before the newly hatched dry off. That can also get the incubator to stinking after a few days. I hate staggered hatches but you are where you are.

If you can identify the earlier hatches and depending on what your incubator looks like, some people make an open-topped box out of hardware cloth and invert that over the early eggs so they can't mess up the later eggs. Or use the mesh baskets fruit might come in. Or something similar.

You might put a towel or something under those eggs so you can clean the hatch mess up when you remove the first ducklings. That might help enough.

Hopefully there is not that much difference in them and they will all hatch within a reasonable time frame. Good luck!!!

Thank you for your help. I have attached a picture of my incubator.

 

[casportpony]

@casportpony you surprised me. I thought you were heading toward candling to determine development and separating them that way, much like WVduckchick.

I was going to suggest that, but unless the humidity was kept low enough I suspect it would be hard to tell them apart at this point.

 

[WVduckchick]

I think I would just pretend that there aren't any Muscovy, treat the whole hatch like 28 days. Then after any ducklings hatch, candle the remaining eggs and check for movement. If they are still viable after the other ducklings hatch, assume the remaining ones are Muscovy.

 

[WVduckchick]

I also have eggs hatching currently in that same incubator. The view is awesome for a classroom hatch!
I would suggest adding a piece of rubber shelf liner under the eggs when you remove the turner and increase the humidity.

 

[PaulX]

I'm the type that opens the incubator to take the newly hatched (and the shell and gunk) out immediately after I see them. I know it's not recommended since the temperature and humidity would drop, but I do it anyway. Eliminates the risk of the ducklings playing soccer and contamination at least.

Any chance of you having mule eggs? (muscovy x mallard-derived) That would further complicate the staggering hatch.