Question

[conquest780]

People i am hatching pekin duck eggs in my home made incubator . It is day 24 and some of the are black from the outside and when I candle them I see weird stuff inside it the others are clear and no development is in them just some are turning out to be weird. Please help is black of or not. The eggs were originally white but some are light black now.

 

[conquest780]

Please hurry

 

[conquest780]

Just for the information I am new in this

 

[conquest780]

Cmon people

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Tomorrow would be your lock down for duck, day 25 and you'd expect them to hatch around day 28.

I've not hatched ducks nor any white egg for that matter so have no idea if the darkening of shell is abnormal or not. Kinda just here to let you know folks are starting to wake up and that I'm sure a duck person will arrive to post soon.

As for general candling and getting ready for your lock down period there's a few things to remember. Wash your hands prior to handling eggs. Stop turning eggs three days before expected hatch, that's tonight or tomorrow you'd stop opening incubator and turning. Toss all clear eggs as they were infertile or quit in first few days of incubating. From candling at this point you should see mostly developed ducklings or at least large masses with small areas of clear in the eggs. Depending on your temperature during incubation some of the air cells may already be piped into as the ducks are nearing time to pip the shell. I've had some chicks in an incubation pip the air cell day 18, hatch day 20, a day or two earlier than their incubator mates.

Here is the Peking Duck thread where you could post the question about shells turning dark near end of incubation:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/742668/pekin-duck-club/110

Here's a video of Peking Duck hatching- does the shell look greyish like yours?

 

[conquest780]

Thanks