Knowledgable duck hatchers only please

[tadandrita]

My Pekin hen WAS sitting and quit. I am not sure how long she sat full time. I candled eggs and there is movement inside so I awoke "Lord Bator"

and eggs went in after a night under a lamp and spritzers of water. Anyhoo at our BEST guess hatch SHOULD be in 2 weeks.....my wife reported to me that when she spritzed eggs and turned them ONE peeped and rocked today..I candled egg and they are good ..chics are active and good air cell...SOOOOO should we continue turning or let them be???? If continue how long??? Oh BTW these specificly are Jumbo Pekin over Standard Pekin if that helps...also hen is 2 y/o. Thank You for advise in advance!!

 

[learycow]

Generally, if you can hear them peeping they are only 1-3 days away from hatching.
But if you are pretty sure she wasn't sitting on them long, and that they have another 2 weeks to go, I would turn them. That way if there are babies that are still developing and not quite close to hatching, you'll have less chance there will be deformities.
You never know, she may have been sitting longer than you realized. Like I said, you can't usually hear them peeping until they are really close to hatching. There may also be a few that are older (theefore may hatch earlier) than the rest. I had 5 hatch one day, and the remaining 12 eggs hatch a whole week later. You just never know!

 

[mandelyn]

When you candled, were they all the same size? Or some eggs darker than others indicating a larger chick?

You're turning by hand? I always turn by hand when I'm not sure about the hatch date.

Pekins aren't known for their great broody powers, it's common for them to start and then quit, or never even start at all. Some won't even lay in a nest, they'll just drop their egg wherever they're standing. It varies widely through the breed, other Pekins can hatch successfully and be fairly decent mothers, it just depends.

Next time you catch her setting, have the incubator ready in case she quits again. If you heard an egg peeping, I would stop turning that one, and mark it with an x or something in pencil, or set it away from the others to keep track of it. Once you see a pip hole, you'll need to bump the humidity up to 75% or so and leave the lid shut. I had good luck in a staggered hatch when I had to stop turning the "younger" eggs to wait on the oldest to hatch, all made it out over the span of a week.

You'll also need to brood them, she won't want them back to raise. So get that set up when one starts working it's way out.