Rescued Duck Eggs - NEED HELP DETERMINING AGE!

[Engineer24Seven]

Last Sunday I new absolutely nothing about raising any type of egg/bird. Then I was given a choice to either
A) try and give 9 duck eggs a chance to live
or
B) watch them being thrown in the trash. Despite my ignorance on the subject I decided to give it a shot.

I went with B

I quickly researched optimal temperatures and humidity for duck eggs (we think mallard) and put my nerdy engineering skills to work. Long story short I was able to put together a computer controlled incubator that regulates both temperature and humidity with an internal fan to circulate the air.

I was able to get the eggs into the incubator within a few hours. I then immersed myself in learning all I could about the subject. Later that night I went to turn the eggs and (with my newly obtained knowledge) armed myself with a bright flashlight. I candled all 9 eggs and found 7 are very much alive and moving. It was very obvious that the other 2 were not viable.

So, As of the time of this writing, I have 7 viable mallard (I think) duck eggs. I have been trying to determine how far along they are by candling them, tracing the air pocket and taking picture, then comparing those pictures to online resources. I'm having a hard time feeling confident about what they they are on. I could use all the help i can get.

My biggest reason for wanting to know the age is so i know when to change the temperature/humidity, also so I know when to stop turning them.

Here are the pictures I took tonight. The line on the egg was traced roughly 36 hours before the picture. I apologize for the quality/blurriness. I was trying to keep several small children at bay while taking these pictures












Also, not sure if its helpful, but below is a link to a video showing movement. In Hindsight i should have propped the cam up so i could use 2 hands so you could see the entire egg better, sorry.


Click ---> YouTube Video


I was thinking they look to be about day 23ish but I have no confidence in the guess... What do you all think?

 

[Lozuufy]

I'm not an expert on duck eggs, but to me it looks to be around day 21 (maybe 23) development wise. I'd say stop turning in 2-3 days. Eggs don't need to be turned an exact number of days, a couple days (more or less) of not turning at the end of incubation is fine. Humidity is also pretty flexible too, I like mine 30-45% during the first part and 60-70% during lockdown (just never under 20% or over 80%!). Temp is the only thing that has to be pretty exact, I keep mine at 99.5 f (37.5 if you use Celsius) and I keep it the same throughout incubation. Some people like lowering it a tiny bit at lockdown but personally I like keeping it the same.

This link has tons of info (might be slightly overwhelming), the beginning is about incubators and shipped eggs but if you scroll down to about the middle and start reading there it has so much great information https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

Good luck, hope this helps!

 

[casportpony]

Welcome to BYC!







-Kathy

 

[Engineer24Seven]

Kathy thanks for the charts. I've come across these in my research and they have been my primary resource for comparison. I just keep question my interpenetration...

Thank for taking time in send them