No blood vessels, day 28

[portiaari]

Hi, I do have light at one end and when I candle I can see the yellow of the yolk at the other. The airsac doesn't look very big though, but I've got the eggs in the right temp etc and high humidity, I feel like a first time mum

 

[Urbanfarmerkc]

No knowing exactly what you are describing makes it hard to know. If the egg is completely dark except the air sack at the blunt end then yes, the blood vessels were absorbed as the duckling developed. If you can still see a clear egg then you have what another posted named a "clear". Either way, at day 28, you are so close, just wait it out and see what happens. Here is why I say this, if you candled before and saw veins and you no longer see veins that is quite uncommon. It is more common for a duckling to start development and then stop but the veins would just stay where they are.

Either way, wait it out and good luck... hope you have 100% hatch...

Dave

 

[adrian]

A lot of people, when relatively new to incubating, are very certain that their incubation methods are ideal because their instruments tell them that their humidity and temperature are correct. However, you have to always realize that most digital thermometers and hygrometers are quite, sometimes very, inaccurate. Also, from what I've experienced, high humidity throughout incubation for waterfowl is a myth and a falsity. There's no logical reason they require humidity anywhere over 50%. However, it is something a lot of people believe when new to incubation and it's widely circulated so there's no reason to be ashamed or guilty. However, when I incubated duck and goose eggs with high humidity, many of the ducks and some of the geese drowned prior to pipping. Also, some of the hygrometers I've used in the past have been off as much as 40%. Thermometers have been awful to me as well. They seem to also get worse over time, and having a bunch doesn't fix anything because they can all disagree with each other. I find that expensive thermometers with probes or medical thermometers are the only ones that give accurate readings for me. The best idea is to have your tools calibrated, especially your hygrometer and your thermometers if they are cheap/do not agree with each other, and make sure your readings were spot on. However, if you had a duckling hatch early and weak, sounds like your temperature might be too high; if some have small air cells, your humidity is too high. That can create a great deal of problems and it seems as if your instruments are not giving you accurate readings.

I would do a google search for "calibrating thermometers" and "calibrating hygrometers" and try out the methods. I know with hygrometers you're supposed to put a certain amount of water with a certain amount of salt in a cup, put the cup with the salt/water mixture in a zip lock bag with the hygrometer and check in eight hours for a specific reading, but you'll need to look up calibration for proper measurements... Also, you can check thermometers by making an ice water and checking with that, but if your thermometers don't have probes they won't be water resistant... In which case, go out and buy a good thermometer. You can find digital thermometers with probes at most pet stores.

 

[portiaari]

Hi all, sadly the 4 eggs due to hatch were all dead in shell. I am so sad. I have 5 more in the other incubator and thanks to much advice have realised that the humidity must be too high as the airsacs are too small, I think that's why my other ducklings died, their airsacs were small also. So on advice I've now dropped the humidity really low to help dry to 'dry out' the eggs due tomorrow and I'm off to get a hygrometer combo from the chemist this morning. thanks for all your help.x

 

[mitch324]

sorry