Nervous Mother

Llamalover77

Hatching
Jun 15, 2017
6
0
7
Hello! I'm new to the Duck and Chicken Hatching world. I work on a farm that has Llamas and Miniature Donkeys. We also have a few ducks. We noticed one of the ducks was laying eggs, but a large black snake was eating them. We decided we needed to take matters into our own hands and incubate the eggs. We started May 20th. Because their dates are inching closer, I've been getting nervous and worried. I've thought about everything I've done in hopes of having the largest amount of surviving ducklings. Every tiny little thing that happens is worrying me. For example, one of the eggs was dropped but landed on soft material, so it didn't crack or anything. When I picked it up, I could have swore I felt the duckling move inside. What worries me is that it seems liquid inside is moving freely and there is a large area for me to see through. Half of the egg is still darkened, but I'm still worried the duck may be hurt or dead from the dropping.
 
If you started them on the 20th, the hatch date would have been yesterday. Have they started to hatch yet? What has your temperature been? And the humidity? Is your incubator still air or forced air with a fan?
 
One of them has a small yellow patch at the bottom of the air sac. Which I associate with the duckling trying to get air and starting to hatch, hopefully. They've been in an incubator with a fan warming unit I believe. The temperature has been between 98 and 100.3 degrees. The humidity has been around 50%, but on the 15th or 16th, I started to try to keep the humidity a little higher. At like 80% or a little less. The egg I mentioned earlier is the only egg with any signs of anything along the lines of hatching. I might need to add that we have a few Muscovy ducks as well as a Swedish blue duck. The eggs are two distinctive size and colors. Some are white as ever and larger; the rest are slightly smaller with a slightly darker tint to them. My boss, co-workers, and I assume that some of them are Muscovy ducks. We have no idea which breaded with the only female duck we have. I've been taking that into account. My frantic research has told me that they take a bit longer to hatch.
 
What breed is your female? If it was a muscovy male that bred with her, yes, it could take the offspring longer to hatch. It would also mean the offspring will be mule ducks and infertile.
 
Okay, so if the muscovy mated with her, the babies would definitely be mule ducks and in that case could take about 32 days.
 
Well. I have an exciting update!!! As noted in some of the other questions, one of the eggs had a large yellow spot near the bottom of the air sac this morning and it is growing larger in a semi linear fashion. So I believe one is trying to begin to hatch. More and better exciting news. Also during this afternoon's candling session, we saw 3 of the ducklings moving around as if they were to be saying "Hey! Turn the light off. I'm trying to sleep in here!!"
 
Great! Movement is a good sign. Did you see any internal pipping? That might still be a ways off if they are mules, though.
 

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