punkyperez
Hatching
- May 2, 2016
- 4
- 1
- 7
Hi!
I'm about 6 months new to the duck world and about 2 months new to seeing eggs around the coop. We've normally been taking the eggs right away so not to have any ducklings as we have one drake within our 3 ducks. Late last September (like the last few days) and all of October up until last week my Ancona duck was sitting on a nest of 11 eggs. 2 weeks ago they dwindled down to 5 as they were going bad over the month. I've been candling them and marking which ones are good/bad and about the time period they should hatch. Out of the 5, 2 pipped last Wednesday and made a dime like hole over the course of 24+ hours however come the 3rd morning they didn't make it overnight
. I'm not sure why but when I went out my Ancona duck who has been sitting on them faithfully was not on them the morning I found the duckling eggs not moving or chirping as they were.
Needless to say, after about 6 hours of crying that morning, I decided to buy an incubator for the remaining 3 from Tractor Supply, Farm Innovators 4250 model to be exact. Before I put them in it I ran a test of the machine and candled them to be sure they were still alive because I actually thought they weren't last week.
I've done lots of research in the last 6 months of raising ducks and now possible ducklings but seem to be confused on the incubation process. Currently the incubator is at 99 degrees with about 57-65% humidity.This last weekend both Saturday and Sunday one of the 3 were wiggling, not a lot but every now and then would. I did take them out yesterday to candle them all once more and 2 were moving a little, 1 not at all.
I know it's a long thread for such a simple question but wanted to give some background as to where I'm at with things. My question is, the air sac seems to be about 1/3rd of the space of the eggs now and right around the day it should hatch, with the wiggling of that one, how soon should I expect it to pip? I haven't seen it move much since the weekend so I don't know if this is a good sign or bad.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
BTW, I only became a duck owner as my teen daughter thought it would be "cute" to get baby ducks without my permission so bear with my knowledge as I am now a proud owner of a Pekin, Ancona and believe a mallard (my drake). I've also told her no more thinking animals are cute enough to bring home going forward (although the ducks are very rewarding in a peaceful way...messy birds but peaceful!)
I'm about 6 months new to the duck world and about 2 months new to seeing eggs around the coop. We've normally been taking the eggs right away so not to have any ducklings as we have one drake within our 3 ducks. Late last September (like the last few days) and all of October up until last week my Ancona duck was sitting on a nest of 11 eggs. 2 weeks ago they dwindled down to 5 as they were going bad over the month. I've been candling them and marking which ones are good/bad and about the time period they should hatch. Out of the 5, 2 pipped last Wednesday and made a dime like hole over the course of 24+ hours however come the 3rd morning they didn't make it overnight
Needless to say, after about 6 hours of crying that morning, I decided to buy an incubator for the remaining 3 from Tractor Supply, Farm Innovators 4250 model to be exact. Before I put them in it I ran a test of the machine and candled them to be sure they were still alive because I actually thought they weren't last week.
I've done lots of research in the last 6 months of raising ducks and now possible ducklings but seem to be confused on the incubation process. Currently the incubator is at 99 degrees with about 57-65% humidity.This last weekend both Saturday and Sunday one of the 3 were wiggling, not a lot but every now and then would. I did take them out yesterday to candle them all once more and 2 were moving a little, 1 not at all.
I know it's a long thread for such a simple question but wanted to give some background as to where I'm at with things. My question is, the air sac seems to be about 1/3rd of the space of the eggs now and right around the day it should hatch, with the wiggling of that one, how soon should I expect it to pip? I haven't seen it move much since the weekend so I don't know if this is a good sign or bad.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
BTW, I only became a duck owner as my teen daughter thought it would be "cute" to get baby ducks without my permission so bear with my knowledge as I am now a proud owner of a Pekin, Ancona and believe a mallard (my drake). I've also told her no more thinking animals are cute enough to bring home going forward (although the ducks are very rewarding in a peaceful way...messy birds but peaceful!)
