mixed hatch dates, now what?

[spunky]

We collected 6 duck eggs and 12 chicken eggs to hatch from a friend's farm. We set the duck eggs one week earlier than the chicken eggs so that they would all hatch at the same time (this Friday). We recently learned that some of the duck eggs are Muscovy and will require yet another week to hatch. Since we're not supposed to open the incubator (to maintain humidity) or turn the eggs three days before hatch day, what do we do about the Muscovy eggs? I can't tell which ones are the Muscovy and which one are the Pekin ducks.

I'm afraid that if we don't keep turning the Muscoy eggs, they will become deformed? But if we open the incubator to turn the duck eggs, we might ruin the hatch and turn the wrong duck eggs? Any thoughts/suggestions are appreciated!

 

[hdowden]

have you asked the person you got them from if they could tell you? if you can get another incubator set up i would deffently do that

edit: have you tried looking the eggs up online to see if you could candle them and tell?

 

[spunky]

We did ask our neighbor and he didn't know either. We candled them and they are all growing and moving a lot. Actually, we just went to turn (today was supposed to be the last day to turn them) and one of the duck eggs is peeping and has pipped. We didn't open the incubator or turn any of the eggs. We're keeping our fingers crossed that they will all make it. This has been a tough hatch....we lost power a little over a week ago but only lost three eggs.

We're off to school and work now so we won't know until we get home!!!!!

 

[Chickangel79]

I had a similar thing , in the end I put all that needed turning near the front and set humidity to 60% as a near average, turned the turner off and turned by hand quickly and left them alone. They were all fine and had no problems, good luck x

 

[oldorchardfarms]

i have to do this also right now, not because of having different eggs but 3 days after i set mine my favorite hen laid, so now i have 2 of her eggs in there with a different hatch day. I have been reading a lot about this and what i am going to do is put the eggs in the front of by bator and separate it with an egg carton and just crack it enough so i can turn them real quick. i have read about people doing this. I really hope the hatch

she is a black orpington in with a lavender rooster.

 

[cmom]

I have done this before too, except I didn't worry about turning the eggs and they hatched out ok. I think the critical period for turning is the first 18 day after that they are pretty well formed and positioning themselves for hatching. When the chicks hatch they will turn the eggs anyway.

 

[spunky]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'm just going to leave them alone and hope for the best especially since one has started to hatch! I went home for lunch to check on the little guy and it hasn't progressed much.

 

[spunky]

We have two ducklings and many of the other eggs (both chickens and ducks) have pipped. Should I take the ducks out? One is completely fluffed up and the other is still slightly wet. I'm afraid their poop and mess will adversly affect the other eggs that are trying to hatch.

 

[Gypsy07]

Sounds like your hatch is going well. It's probably best to leave them in the incubator for now, as opening it to take them out can sometimes cause a drop in humidity and problems for the ones still hatching. This is more likely to be a problem with the ducks than with the chickens, as ducks tend to do better with a higher hatching humidity. I wouldn't worry too much about the chicks making a mess, this is just something that happens when they're hatching.

If I were you, I think I'd wait till all the pipped eggs have hatched and fluffed up a bit, then take them all out at once. At this point, I'd give the incubator a very quick clean up and maybe a wipe down with some sanitising fluid, and also give the remaining eggs a quick check over and if necessary a wipe off too.