Regarding turning eggs by hand

[DuckNewby]

Ive been incubating a duck egg for 23 days now. This afternoon I realized that the egg had turned itself somewhere half way between the x and o sides. Should I leave it there or put it back and continue on it's turning routine which has been 3 times a day?
The egg was an abandoned one from a park I frequent. Far from the nest. The mother is a Buff Orpington and the father is probably mallard. It had a dent which I sealed with wax because the membrane was not leaking. Also sealed a few cracks with nail polish. Has saddled aircell on the small side. The egg is almost the same size on both ends. I have left it on its side. The aircell never moved around so was not detached. Hoping it will hatch right. It seems to be moving and growing. Any suggestions for successfully hatching this little one?

 

[BelovedBirds]

Ive been incubating a duck egg for 23 days now. This afternoon I realized that the egg had turned itself somewhere half way between the x and o sides. Should I leave it there or put it back and continue on it's turning routine which has been 3 times a day?
The egg was an abandoned one from a park I frequent. Far from the nest. The mother is a Buff Orpington and the father is probably mallard. It had a dent which I sealed with wax because the membrane was not leaking. Also sealed a few cracks with nail polish. Has saddled aircell on the small side. The egg is almost the same size on both ends. I have left it on its side. The aircell never moved around so was not detached. Hoping it will hatch right. It seems to be moving and growing. Any suggestions for successfully hatching this little one?

Do you mean the egg was found in a public park? Was the mother duck abandoned there?

Have a candle of the egg, look at the air cell, is the duckling filling the entire egg? is it shadowing the air cell? (pushing against the internal membrane), is there an internal pip?
If you can still see space between the duckling and air cell, with lots of veins visible still-I would keep turning the egg.
If there is shadowing, or an internal pip, I would stop turning.

Are you using a calibrated thermometer in the incubator?

 

[DuckNewby]

Do you mean the egg was found in a public park? Was the mother duck abandoned there?

Have a candle of the egg, look at the air cell, is the duckling filling the entire egg? is it shadowing the air cell? (pushing against the internal membrane), is there an internal pip?
If you can still see space between the duckling and air cell, with lots of veins visible still-I would keep turning the egg.
If there is shadowing, or an internal pip, I would stop turning.

Are you using a calibrated thermometer in the incubator?

Thank you for replying. Yes the egg was found in a public park. There is a large man made lake and lots of water fowl. Over the years I have seen various domestic ducks abandoned there. This particular female is a Buff Orpington. Unfortunately, her life appears very difficult as she has a constant following of 3 male Mallards. She appears to be the only female Orpington. These males are frequently mounting her. Her poor feathers on the back of her head are gone from them grabbing and dunking her. She cannot fly so it's not easy for her to flee. The park is full of female Mallards without mates but they like her. Anyway, We had seen her coming from a large bush in the mornings which was new for her. A few days after that we found this cracked egg laying near the water on concrete. I picked it up and bought an incubator. And watched many videos and read many articles. So two weeks went by and we were walking in the same area and found eggs that were exactly like the one we found. They were totally destroyed by something. So looks like the nest was raided and the mother never went back there and has moved to an island. She's been at this lake a couple years and I've never seen her successfully hatch babies. We do hand feed her duck food and mealy worm snacks. Some of the Mallards will eat from our hands too.
Regarding the egg. I have a newly purchased outdoor thermometer that measures humidity. I had to adjust my incubator as it runs cooler. Been keeping humidity 55-60 percent because it's so dry here in AZ. I candled this morning early during the egg cooling period and could see movement. It is up against the aircell. Looks like they're is still the fluid sitting behind it. It's curled toward the aircell which is mostly on one side and a little at the top. It has grown larger. Not a whole lot of room in there left.

 

[DuckNewby]

Thank you for replying. Yes the egg was found in a public park. There is a large man made lake and lots of water fowl. Over the years I have seen various domestic ducks abandoned there. This particular female is a Buff Orpington. Unfortunately, her life appears very difficult as she has a constant following of 3 male Mallards. She appears to be the only female Orpington. These males are frequently mounting her. Her poor feathers on the back of her head are gone from them grabbing and dunking her. She cannot fly so it's not easy for her to flee. The park is full of female Mallards without mates but they like her. Anyway, We had seen her coming from a large bush in the mornings which was new for her. A few days after that we found this cracked egg laying near the water on concrete. I picked it up and bought an incubator. And watched many videos and read many articles. So two weeks went by and we were walking in the same area and found eggs that were exactly like the one we found. They were totally destroyed by something. So looks like the nest was raided and the mother never went back there and has moved to an island. She's been at this lake a couple years and I've never seen her successfully hatch babies. We do hand feed her duck food and mealy worm snacks. Some of the Mallards will eat from our hands too.
Regarding the egg. I have a newly purchased outdoor thermometer that measures humidity. I had to adjust my incubator as it runs cooler. Been keeping humidity 55-60 percent because it's so dry here in AZ. I candled this morning early during the egg cooling period and could see movement. It is up against the aircell. Looks like they're is still the fluid sitting behind it. It's curled toward the aircell which is mostly on one side and a little at the top. It has grown larger. Not a whole lot of room in there left. No pip yet. I thought I saw the beak against the air cell. It's difficult to see much veining now.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Thank you for replying. Yes the egg was found in a public park. There is a large man made lake and lots of water fowl. Over the years I have seen various domestic ducks abandoned there. This particular female is a Buff Orpington. Unfortunately, her life appears very difficult as she has a constant following of 3 male Mallards. She appears to be the only female Orpington. These males are frequently mounting her. Her poor feathers on the back of her head are gone from them grabbing and dunking her. She cannot fly so it's not easy for her to flee. The park is full of female Mallards without mates but they like her. Anyway, We had seen her coming from a large bush in the mornings which was new for her. A few days after that we found this cracked egg laying near the water on concrete. I picked it up and bought an incubator. And watched many videos and read many articles. So two weeks went by and we were walking in the same area and found eggs that were exactly like the one we found. They were totally destroyed by something. So looks like the nest was raided and the mother never went back there and has moved to an island. She's been at this lake a couple years and I've never seen her successfully hatch babies. We do hand feed her duck food and mealy worm snacks. Some of the Mallards will eat from our hands too.
Regarding the egg. I have a newly purchased outdoor thermometer that measures humidity. I had to adjust my incubator as it runs cooler. Been keeping humidity 55-60 percent because it's so dry here in AZ. I candled this morning early during the egg cooling period and could see movement. It is up against the aircell. Looks like they're is still the fluid sitting behind it. It's curled toward the aircell which is mostly on one side and a little at the top. It has grown larger. Not a whole lot of room in there left.

it wouldn't hurt to let lockdown ride a couple days early if the baby is filling the entire egg. With the air cell growing, it could be gearing up for hatch. You could stop turning the egg now, leaving the air cell up- largest part of the air cell on the top side of the egg, if that makes sense- and just wait until an internal pip to raise humidity. That would be safe to do.

With all the trouble you're going to- to hatch this egg- would you not consider trying to rescue the mama duck? It's terribly sad, so many get dumped, but it doesn't sound good for this one especially, with the drakes after her. Mallard drakes can be ruthless, and when multiple are after the same one, they can end up killing the females.
I tried to rescue a dumped pekin local to me, couldn't give up on her. Sadly she was too feral, and it wasn't possible for me to do- she's gone now and I feel just terrible!
But this Orpington sounds fairly docile in comparison. Poor girl!

 

[DuckNewby]

Thank you for your advice. I e been concerned about still having the fluid behind the embryo (Although it is getting less). So not raising humidity until I see the pip makes sense. Also orienting the aircell which is mostly on the side to the up position sounds right too. Thankyou. I'll try to get a photo or two tonight or tomorrow early.

I would love to rescue her. We lovingly call her Marilyn (Monroe) and she does come running when she sees us. Of course she loves to eat. Seems much more hungry than the others probably due to not being trained to survive as a young duck in that setting. I'm not sure how she would respond to being taken from the lake. She would have a much smaller space and a kiddie pool, but more peaceful for sure. I need to talk to the guy in charge of the park about the whole thing. There are a couple male Orpingtons at the other end. I've seen them get in fights over her. They're mating with the female Mallards and getting some interesting babies. The male Orpingtons are not quite as friendly toward people as she is. She did have a sister who was being treated the same by the Mallards and she just wasn't around one day. I'll look into trying to get her out of there.

 

[DuckNewby]

Update. Just finished candling and there is significantly less fluid and more bird. There is still veining seen. I am not seeing shadowing in the air cell which has grown a bit today again. The embryo was not very active but there isn't much room in there. The humidity is at 55 to 60. This is the end of day 24. Was thinking it may be the right time for lockdown tomorrow and to raise humidity. I did not turn the egg tonight as this is the best orientation for hatching. (Air cell up)

 

[DuckNewby]

Update. Just finished candling and there is significantly less fluid and more bird. There is still veining seen. I am not seeing shadowing in the air cell which has grown a bit today again. The embryo was not very active but there isn't much room in there. The humidity is at 55 to 60. This is the end of day 24. Was thinking it may be the right time for lockdown tomorrow and to raise humidity. I did not turn the egg tonight as this is the best orientation for hatching. (Air cell up) should I wait for the shadowing or internal pip before locking down and raising humidity?

 

[BelovedBirds]

Update. Just finished candling and there is significantly less fluid and more bird. There is still veining seen. I am not seeing shadowing in the air cell which has grown a bit today again. The embryo was not very active but there isn't much room in there. The humidity is at 55 to 60. This is the end of day 24. Was thinking it may be the right time for lockdown tomorrow and to raise humidity. I did not turn the egg tonight as this is the best orientation for hatching. (Air cell up)

movement will get harder to see at this stage, so don't worry too much about that- you'll likely see little flickers of movement. It sounds like baby might be right on time after all!
Keep me updated on the hatch!

 

[DuckNewby]

movement will get harder to see at this stage, so don't worry too much about that- you'll likely see little flickers of movement. It sounds like baby might be right on time after all!
Keep me updated on the hatch!

Another update. I went to check this evening and shined a flashlight through the window of the incubator and whistled at it and the egg jumped. Also again when I spoke to it. So it's still alive. I sure hope it's positioned correctly.