lethargic duckling...bad hatch

[prncssprplfrog]

I am tired of having hatching issues. I can't get my humidity up in my Brinsea 20Eco. I got 6 Cayuga duck eggs on April 25 and set them on the 26th. They were due to hatch on May 25th, but the air cells were HUGE & very misshaped. I had an issue with the seller (Ebay) and she didn't ship them until like a week after I bought them.


I had one pip on the 26th & then nothing for 24 hours, so I helped out. The outer membrane was REALLY dry & over the course of yesterday, I ended up helping it out of the egg quite a bit. Now it's really lethargic, sleeping a lot.

Yesterday, when I was putting the first one back into the incubator, I noticed that one had pipped on the bottom of the egg, so I turned it over. No progress today with that one, so I started to chip the egg away, leaving some of both membranes.


This is my first time hatching ducks.... I'm really sad that I'm having such a HUGE failure!


BTW- can someone tell me what color Cayuga eggs are? I know the ducks are black & ducklings are a grey/black color. The one hatching that has come out (the lethargic one) has a bit of yellow around it..... I'm going to be ticked if these aren't what I bought.

 

[glenolam]

I don't have experience in Cayuga eggs (Rouen and Khacki Campbell are what I hatch), but I can tell you that if you notice you are having humidity problems then you may want to put a wet sponge or something like that in the incubator if you have the room.

When it's time for lockdown, mist the eggs with a little warm water to help keep the membranes wet.

I had duck eggs that waited until day 31 to hatch. It was excrutiating!

The main thing to remember is that whenever you open up the incubator to investigate pipping or something like that, make sure the room is warm and moist. I hatch out in the basement bathroom where I can keep the room at a steady 70 degrees and then run the shower if/when I'm taking out eggs during lockdown (which I really try not to do).

I'm sorry you are having a bad experience! I have found that my duck eggs are easier to hatch than my chicken eggs - weird....

for the one duckling that's lethargic, make sure you have a nice fuzzy towel in there or even make some type of hut - here's a link to what someone made to keep their chicks company
Keep the duckling in the incubator for another day or so - some people say that if you help a duckling/chick hatch it's not as strong as it should be because it didn't have to hatch itself out. Once you take it out, be sure to dip its beak into water/grain so it gets the idea.

Keep us posted on how it works out.