Questions about duck eggs. -- and a USPS Rant.

[Baralak]

I have set around 30 duck eggs, Khaki Campbell, Welsh Harlequins, Golden Layer, Mallard, and a few mystery eggs.. I have two fold problems. The eggs were packaged very nicely, however USPS decided to play kickball or something with the box because when I opened it 6 of the eggs were broke and leaking. about 5 others were cracked, but not leaking, so I sealed them with candle wax. They have been in the incubator for about 5 days now, and I decided to do a quick candle on them to see how many were working. As I checked them, USPS has struck again, just about 80 precent of them have ruptured air sacs.

For those that have hatched duck eggs with ruptured air sacs, please offer feedback.

My bator is a forced air Hova with the turner. What I plan on doing is putting the turner in the neutral position at 25 days and letting nature take her course. The eggs with a good air sac, I will put in a hatcher. The rest will leave in the hova.

 

[Baralak]

Anyone?

 

[pete55]

Incubate vertically for at least 10 days. This confines the air to the end it should be. The sucess rate is about 50% in my experience. After 10 days the embryos own membranes have grown within the egg to create a new seal

Pete

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
Thanks for this bit of info Pete one more piece of the "Holy grail " of hatching

 

[pete55]

No problem. If I see another detached air cell then I'll get a picture. As Im wanting some Sebastopol Geese I think I'll have to buy eggs on Ebay. Its the rough handling in the shipping that causes the problem usually which is why I try to avoid shipped eggs myself

Pete

 

[aveca]

I feel for you..it is very difficult and there are a lot of people in here that have lot of experience with duck eggs..
This article helped me a lot , it goes with redwood incubator .Right now I have 10 eggs from arizona in the incubator , day 8 following this advise as well as an old paper from cornell University . 6 of the air cells have stabalised, but 4 are very sloppy but you can see veining around the cell.hope this helps a little, its mostly for chickens but helps with dealing with shipped eggs..its very trickey and Im nervous about the eggs I have right now. only one was infertle. maybe you guys could tweak this to work with shipped duck eggs.

INCUBATION TECHNIQUES:



All eggs in nature are incubated flat. You'll never see a hen set them on the small end and turn them. By laying them flat and rolling them 180 degrees each time you’re making everything inside the egg shift completely. This complete shift is called “Making the Embryo Exercise”. This will give you a stronger chick when it comes time to hatch.

The only time I'll incubate eggs in the upright position is when I get eggs shipped in. Then I incubate them in the upright position for 7 to 10 days without turning them at all and then turn them for the remainder of the 18 day period. This stabilizes the air cell and gives the embryo a better chance to start growing and get strong. You should let them rest at least 12 hours prior to incubation when you use this system. When shipped eggs that have air cell damage, it's best to have them incubate in the upright position the entire time of incubation just tipping back and forth after the first 7 to 10 days. I've taken eggs that have the air cells damaged so bad that they'll shift all the way down the side of the egg and I've gotten a good percentage of them to hatch doing it this way. This is my idea from getting hatching eggs shipped in over the years and then nothing hatching because of air cell damage. I just studied the eggs and opened tons of them that didn't hatch and came to the conclusion that to get them to hatch you first had to get the embryo growing building up strength. That was always the biggest battle. That's what blood rings are in shipped eggs. The embryo starts and then dies because it can't attach itself properly in the egg. Run both of these incubator with the air vents wide open. This will keep the air healthier in the incubator and keep the humidity lower. Only go by the size of the air cell in the egg to gauge the humidity in your incubator. Some eggs dry down easier than others. Marans eggs will dry down slower than Leghorn eggs. This has something to do with the egg shell. But if you go by standard operating directions and run your incubators according to the incubator directions you'll have poor hatches. You have to shoot for getting the air cell size to grow up to 1/3 of the egg by the time the chicks are supposed to hatch. The smaller the air cell the wetter the chicks will be. Small air cells will lead to a lot of chicks pipping and then drowning in the eggs.

As far as the humidity goes like I said, just watch the air cells. They're what will determine if the eggs are incubating right. Sticky chicks are caused by way to much moisture in the egg. What you have to think about is all the white of the egg has to be gone when that chick is ready to pip out. Then what happens ,if it is still there, is as soon as air gets into the egg when they pip through, the white of the egg acts like glue and as they're pipping it's drying and eventually it plugs their nostrils up and they smother. I have all my vents wide open and I don't add any water until the eggs are pipping. I set my Redwoods up so when I start them I fill the water pans full of the hottest water that comes out of the faucet. Then let them run for a couple of hours to seal up the wood. Then set your temps. Once the Redwoods are sealed then the moisture evaporating out of the eggs seems to be enough until they start pipping. Then, when the eggs start pipping, fill the water pans with straight hot water again. I do this even with my waterfowl eggs. They hatch so much better this way.

 

[aveca]

I do not know much about duck eggs but this article along with an old paper from Cornell University helped me deal with shipped eggs..its tricky stuff.maybe you guys could tweak this to work with duck eggs. Im wondering if contacting somone who is higher up at PO would help, probably not..we spend probably millions every year shipping eggs only to be dissapointed by the bad handeling, one egg that I got was so bad it was all bubbles rolling around in there.nothing was going to fix that one.

I am going through the same thing with eggs from arizona..great packing but they really scrambled the air cells in all of the eggs. 6 have how settled and healed themselves, 4 are still very sloppy (probably because at day 4 husband noticed the turner wasnt on and he turned it on))) 1 egg was infertile..following this advise wich is for redwood incubator but dealing with damaged air cells helps a lot.

INCUBATION TECHNIQUES:



All eggs in nature are incubated flat. You'll never see a hen set them on the small end and turn them. By laying them flat and rolling them 180 degrees each time you’re making everything inside the egg shift completely. This complete shift is called “Making the Embryo Exercise”. This will give you a stronger chick when it comes time to hatch.

The only time I'll incubate eggs in the upright position is when I get eggs shipped in. Then I incubate them in the upright position for 7 to 10 days without turning them at all and then turn them for the remainder of the 18 day period. This stabilizes the air cell and gives the embryo a better chance to start growing and get strong. You should let them rest at least 12 hours prior to incubation when you use this system. When shipped eggs that have air cell damage, it's best to have them incubate in the upright position the entire time of incubation just tipping back and forth after the first 7 to 10 days. I've taken eggs that have the air cells damaged so bad that they'll shift all the way down the side of the egg and I've gotten a good percentage of them to hatch doing it this way. This is my idea from getting hatching eggs shipped in over the years and then nothing hatching because of air cell damage. I just studied the eggs and opened tons of them that didn't hatch and came to the conclusion that to get them to hatch you first had to get the embryo growing building up strength. That was always the biggest battle. That's what blood rings are in shipped eggs. The embryo starts and then dies because it can't attach itself properly in the egg. Run both of these incubator with the air vents wide open. This will keep the air healthier in the incubator and keep the humidity lower. Only go by the size of the air cell in the egg to gauge the humidity in your incubator. Some eggs dry down easier than others. Marans eggs will dry down slower than Leghorn eggs. This has something to do with the egg shell. But if you go by standard operating directions and run your incubators according to the incubator directions you'll have poor hatches. You have to shoot for getting the air cell size to grow up to 1/3 of the egg by the time the chicks are supposed to hatch. The smaller the air cell the wetter the chicks will be. Small air cells will lead to a lot of chicks pipping and then drowning in the eggs.

As far as the humidity goes like I said, just watch the air cells. They're what will determine if the eggs are incubating right. Sticky chicks are caused by way to much moisture in the egg. What you have to think about is all the white of the egg has to be gone when that chick is ready to pip out. Then what happens ,if it is still there, is as soon as air gets into the egg when they pip through, the white of the egg acts like glue and as they're pipping it's drying and eventually it plugs their nostrils up and they smother. I have all my vents wide open and I don't add any water until the eggs are pipping. I set my Redwoods up so when I start them I fill the water pans full of the hottest water that comes out of the faucet. Then let them run for a couple of hours to seal up the wood. Then set your temps. Once the Redwoods are sealed then the moisture evaporating out of the eggs seems to be enough until they start pipping. Then, when the eggs start pipping, fill the water pans with straight hot water again. I do this even with my waterfowl eggs. They hatch so much better this way.

 

[Baralak]

Thank you all for your comments.. It just seems that evertime I get shipped eggs that the box says eggs, there are problems. When the box doesn't say anything at all, then everything is in good shape. I know that it has nothing to do with anything.

I have the eggs in my turner right now and the will stay in it until lockdown. In which then I will split up the eggs into the hatcher and the incubator. I have never been a fan of vertical hatching. I had one chick pip out the wrong end and get stuck once, so I will lay them all on their sides on day 25 which will be the 24th of April. We shall keep everything crossed I have.

This is the first time I have ever incubated Ducks.. I have incubated chicks for some time.

We shall see!