GraceHomestead
Songster
- Jun 21, 2016
- 168
- 140
- 141
Ok last year was my first year hatching. I went through a lot of trial and error but had some really good hatch rates...chicks and ducklings.
So this year I really wanted welsh harliquin ducks but it is impossible to find them in my area. So I ordered 24 welsh harliquin duck eggs. They travelled 400+ miles. They were held up over the weekend and we got 4 inches of snow. They arrived on Monday march 12th. The air cells upon candeling were really bad and they were freezing cold!! (See pictures of the eggs, I marked the damaged air cells)
I let them set 48 hours in a warm dark space!
On another group they said to soak the eggs in 110° water to hydrate the eggs. So I did that on the 14th, let them dry then put in the incubator.
They are in cardboard egg cartons with the bottoms cut out. I prop the incubator , right, middle, left, middle repeat 3 times a day. We are on day 11 and 15 eggs are moving around great. 8 eggs did not produce anything and there was 1 early quitter.
THat being said I have NEVER had to deal with detached air cells!! Half thankfully have reattached and look great but the other half concern me. The air cells being HUGE like they have pulled from the shell. (See pictures) The embryos are doing good but worried about the cell.
With ducks I know the humidity needs to be up but I have been keeping it at 40%. When looking at the eggs the marks were made before i set them and were where the air cells were damaged.
Does anyone have any pointers?!?! Thanks
And here are what they looked like on arival.
So this year I really wanted welsh harliquin ducks but it is impossible to find them in my area. So I ordered 24 welsh harliquin duck eggs. They travelled 400+ miles. They were held up over the weekend and we got 4 inches of snow. They arrived on Monday march 12th. The air cells upon candeling were really bad and they were freezing cold!! (See pictures of the eggs, I marked the damaged air cells)
I let them set 48 hours in a warm dark space!
On another group they said to soak the eggs in 110° water to hydrate the eggs. So I did that on the 14th, let them dry then put in the incubator.
They are in cardboard egg cartons with the bottoms cut out. I prop the incubator , right, middle, left, middle repeat 3 times a day. We are on day 11 and 15 eggs are moving around great. 8 eggs did not produce anything and there was 1 early quitter.
THat being said I have NEVER had to deal with detached air cells!! Half thankfully have reattached and look great but the other half concern me. The air cells being HUGE like they have pulled from the shell. (See pictures) The embryos are doing good but worried about the cell.
With ducks I know the humidity needs to be up but I have been keeping it at 40%. When looking at the eggs the marks were made before i set them and were where the air cells were damaged.
Does anyone have any pointers?!?! Thanks
And here are what they looked like on arival.