My duck eggs hatching early!?!? Did I do something wrong?

[Lacrystol]

Another thing that is wrong about that information is Egg Storing, it says to store them at 55F and 75% humidity.

Really 55? If you store an egg at 55 you might as well put it in the bator because that is the temp to start the process???

not everything on the internet is correct..

 

[Lacrystol]

http://www.duckhealth.com/hatcduck.html This is all I know maybe help but when my chickens turn red they are to close to heat source. Make sure humidity(water) is around 80 degree at time of hatch or they wont be able to get out. Maybe the red could also be the film inside the eggshell. make sure you don't bust that or the bird my bleed to death.

And yes they can get out at 65%, they can't if they are sticky.

 

[Lacrystol]

Today is day 28. I am concerned that I have lost them. I can't see any movement even when I tap on the egg. And with all that sticky...I bet they are suffocated.

I have 8 more that are on day 21. I looked at them and they are all moving and looking good. I looked from the bottom of the egg and about halfway up the egg is clear. I don't want to end up sticky again so what needs to change in order to have a better development? Higher humidity?

Thanks for everyone's help! I REALLY appreciate it! I don't have all this trouble with chickens!

ANYTHING YET? If not, I beleive today is One day past the due date Correct? make sure you have the humidity up at 70-75 then make them a safe hole. tap on the shell and put it to your ear, let me know if you hear anything, my guess probably not. Candle them one more time for me, perhaps we can help them get that gooy stuff out so they can absorb.

 

[Teacherchick18]

ANYTHING YET? If not, I beleive today is One day past the due date Correct? make sure you have the humidity up at 70-75 then make them a safe hole. tap on the shell and put it to your ear, let me know if you hear anything, my guess probably not. Candle them one more time for me, perhaps we can help them get that gooy stuff out so they can absorb.

Nothing yet. Yes, this would be 1 day past. Day 28 was yesterday. I am not sure how to make a safe hole without causing serious damage. I candled again, and when I tap on the shell...nothing. On the 2 that looked like they dipped, there isn't anything visible on the bottom of the egg anymore. Its completely dark. On the other one it still has lots of space. I can't see movement on any of them, even when I tap. Is it possible that they are still alive without me seeing movement? How can I help them get the gooey stuff out so they can absorb?

I do have a confession to make. I don't have these babies at my house. I am hatching them in my classroom with my students as part of our oviparous animals/life cycles unit. That being said, I don't have control over the temperature/humidity fluctuations in the room and this being the weekend, I also am not there watching them constantly. I usually set the eggs on a Wednesday so that they are hatching during the week when we are there to watch, but I needed to set these eggs on a Friday because I didn't want to hold them over the weekend waiting for the next mid week day.

Please don't think I'm a horrible person for doing these this way. I have been able to get great hatch rates with my chickens over the years (In fact, I hatched 31 out of 38 chickens total this week in 3 different classrooms) so I thought this year it would be fun to try ducks too. Wow did these ducks sure take me back to my 1st chicken hatches! I feel like I don't know anything anymore! I have learned so much since I jumped on this thread from all of you, I feel like I should be paying somebody!

I can come back to my school tomorrow and try some things to see what I can do to help them or see if they are even able to be helped. In the meantime, I still have 8 more that will go into lockdown on Tuesday. I would like to be proactive and do what I can to prevent these from meeting the same sticky fate! Right now the bator is at 33% humidity so I am going to leave it like it is for now.

Thanks!

 

[Lacrystol]

Nothing yet. Yes, this would be 1 day past. Day 28 was yesterday. I am not sure how to make a safe hole without causing serious damage. I candled again, and when I tap on the shell...nothing. On the 2 that looked like they dipped, there isn't anything visible on the bottom of the egg anymore. Its completely dark. On the other one it still has lots of space. I can't see movement on any of them, even when I tap. Is it possible that they are still alive without me seeing movement? How can I help them get the gooey stuff out so they can absorb?

I do have a confession to make. I don't have these babies at my house. I am hatching them in my classroom with my students as part of our oviparous animals/life cycles unit. That being said, I don't have control over the temperature/humidity fluctuations in the room and this being the weekend, I also am not there watching them constantly. I usually set the eggs on a Wednesday so that they are hatching during the week when we are there to watch, but I needed to set these eggs on a Friday because I didn't want to hold them over the weekend waiting for the next mid week day.

Please don't think I'm a horrible person for doing these this way. I have been able to get great hatch rates with my chickens over the years (In fact, I hatched 31 out of 38 chickens total this week in 3 different classrooms) so I thought this year it would be fun to try ducks too. Wow did these ducks sure take me back to my 1st chicken hatches! I feel like I don't know anything anymore! I have learned so much since I jumped on this thread from all of you, I feel like I should be paying somebody!

I can come back to my school tomorrow and try some things to see what I can do to help them or see if they are even able to be helped. In the meantime, I still have 8 more that will go into lockdown on Tuesday. I would like to be proactive and do what I can to prevent these from meeting the same sticky fate! Right now the bator is at 33% humidity so I am going to leave it like it is for now.

Thanks!

OK safe hole, I would like for you to get an egg just a regular egg out of the fridge, use this egg to practice. Then get a needle, tweezers, something with a sharp end so you can pierce it. This will help you get the idea of how much pressure you need to apply on the egg without smashing it and how much pressure you don't need.. I usually take the tweezers and make a little circle to drill through, you do this at the air cell. Just needs to be a small hole, nothing big, like the size of a tip of a pen.

I knew you were hatching in the classroom, I remember you saying something when you first started.. LOL I dont think bad about you AT ALL, I think it's great, kids need to learn not everything goes as plan even if you seem like you have everything right.

Chickens are Different compair to ducks. If it helps, I'm having the SAME problem a humidity issue causes my ducks to become sticky, I have already lost 10, So even the most experience ones have problems. If you humidity is that high your best bet is to start spraying them. i believe spraying them helps evaporate some of the moisture, so if you start a new batch keep that in mind, spray at least one to two times a day but at this point it's not going to do you any good because the damage is already done.


Once they get sticky, the only thing you can do is RAISE that humidity during lockdown, Raise it up to about 70-75, what this does is loosen up that thick gooy stuff..giving them SOME sort of a chance. Once it's one day after the due date make the safe hole, wait 24 hours then we can open them up, if they are still alive, will try to clean them up and help a little it will take TIME. Could take all night....So you may want to bring them home at that point..

 

[Teacherchick18]

Ok I made a little safe hole and listened to the egg. I couldn't hear anything. Not sure what to do at this point. How would I get that gooey stuff out? I'm going to candle the other eggs and put those pics on here so you can assess them for me. I think I will take them home to hatch them at my house since it will be on Friday when they should hatch. That way I can be around to monitor everything. Looks like I will be spending my summer practicing my duck hatch!

 

[Teacherchick18]

Also, I candled the other eggs just now to take a peek and I swear I have an internal pip. I saw a definite shadow going in and out of the air cell. That's an internal pip right? I moved it into the hatching bator which is at a temp of 99 degrees and humidity is at 72%. Hopefully this is correct!

 

[WVduckchick]

Also, I candled the other eggs just now to take a peek and I swear I have an internal pip. I saw a definite shadow going in and out of the air cell. That's an internal pip right? I moved it into the hatching bator which is at a temp of 99 degrees and humidity is at 72%. Hopefully this is correct!

Sounds like you have an internal pip to me! You should also be able to hear chirping if its open into the air cell! 72% should be great, in my opinion! Good luck!

 

[Teacherchick18]

Sounds like you have an internal pip to me! You should also be able to hear chirping if its open into the air cell! 72% should be great, in my opinion! Good luck!

Thanks! I hope it hatches, although it is a bit early. I can't hear any chirping, but I do have twelve 5 day old chicks that are being quite noisy so I may not have realized if it was coming from the egg vs the chicks. I noticed the egg rocking just a minute ago so I'm keeping my fingers crossed! We shall see what happens to the others

 

[Lacrystol]

Also, I candled the other eggs just now to take a peek and I swear I have an internal pip. I saw a definite shadow going in and out of the air cell. That's an internal pip right? I moved it into the hatching bator which is at a temp of 99 degrees and humidity is at 72%. Hopefully this is correct!

NO shawdowing is not internally pipped, but definitely CLOSE, give him about a day or so then you should hear some NOISE.



LETS MAKE SOME NOISE DUCKIES> lol