New at raising ducks! Help!

[vydrew]

I have a female mallard sitting on eggs. I didn't know she had a nest until after she had laid about 6 eggs. I am new to this and didn't think to mark my calendar with the date she started sitting full time on the nest. How can I tell if her eggs are ready to hatch? I'm so impatient and hope to see ducklings soon. I had one female lay 14 eggs and all of them died in the egg a few days short of hatching. Any tips? Any signs to look for that the eggs are ready to hatch?

 

[Amiga]

Check in over on the Call Ducks Hatched Today thread, there are some hatchers there. And @Miss Lydia has had some of her Muscovies hatch eggs. There is something called candling - where you wait for the broody duck to leave the nest for a few minutes, and you use a small flashlight right up against the egg, gently, to see what's inside. You can see veins if they are there, or movement. I think generally at a week or two you can start seeing something.

Not a hatcher - just sharing what I have read here.

Also there are two stickies in the Duck Forum on hatching. Take a look at those.

Welcome!

 

[Miss Lydia]

When you candle take a few eggs at a time into a dark place i use a closet or my feed room, use a good LED flash light and put it at the fat end of the egg.you should be able to see what's going on in the egg if completely dark except for the air cell you have ducklings here is a chart that shows you the progress and what you'll see. When you finish candling first eggs mark with a marker so you don't pick up same eggs to candle when you go back for more.[I put a small X]

and Welcome to BYC

 

[vydrew]

I candled a few of her eggs. Three where see through and one was come plenty dark except for a little light at the pointed end. I can't tell if I see movement. Any ideas

 

[Miss Lydia]

I candled a few of her eggs. Three where see through and one was come plenty dark except for a little light at the pointed end. I can't tell if I see movement. Any ideas

Couldn't see an air cell? On the chart I posted which one did it come close to looking like? How many eggs does she have?

 

[vydrew]

I am really not sure I googled candling on YouTube but I can't see movement. I dint take a long time to look since I was scared my duck would get back in the nest before I could return the egg. I looks most like day 28

 

[Orca5094]

How many eggs does she have? The clear ones are infertile and you can just toss those away since they are just taking up space in the nest. I would try to get a look at all of them so you have a better idea of what's going on. Discard any clear ones. You don't want her to sit forever on bad or infertile eggs, but you also don't want to give up on them if some are getting ready to hatch, so I would leave any that look dark inside or you can see red veins in.

I know you don't know exactly when she started sitting, but can you give us a ballpark? One week for sure, two weeks? More?

Also, I know it's difficult to do, but is is possible for you to get pics of the eggs for us while you candle them? That makes it alot easier for us to help you assess how the eggs are doing. Just hold the flashlight/candler against the egg and up near the air cell so we can see the air cell line and any darkness or blobs inside, then snap a pic.

 

[vydrew]

She had 12. She pushed 5 of them out of the nest a while ago and cracked them. She has about 7 eggs now. I would say she has been sitting on them close to 28 days now. My other female sat for about 30 days half were bad and 4 were almost ready to hatch before they died. My four ducks (3 female 1 male) are about 6 months old.

 

[Orca5094]

Ok, thanks for the new info! I would work on candling those that are left and take out any that are clear or smell bad. Try to get some pics of them if you can as well. 28 days is just a ballpark figure, sometimes they take a little less time, sometimes a little more.

Your ducks are pretty young, so that might be why you had problems with them hatching the first time. Mom might not have been incubating quite right yet, or her eggs/embryos might not be strong enough yet. She hasn't had time to get her reproductive system kinks worked out. It's best if the ducks are a year old before hatching their eggs, just for this purpose.

Good luck and keep us updated, ok?