My mother order eggs online and the company's site (Sadly, not Metzer or anything as organized) gave no indication as to how old the eggs may or may not be when shipped, like Metzer does by saying all hatched eggs are shipped on a monday. We reviewed our eggs on the 28th or so of March about fourteen days after ordering. i only candles a single egg that day (this is my first time hatching and I didn't think to candle the others) and it was supposedly twelve days old according to how I saw the candling chart. If that was true, the duckling should have at least pipped externally sometime this week, right? I candles the others and they were all over the age map on Friday of this week, some were 26-27 days old, one appeared to be 18, and two are questionable because I think they may have not made it past an embryo stage. I'm worried because I attend classes and my mother watches the bator while I'm out. I come home and the humidity is over 70% almost every day and I don't know how to lessen it. We also have our eggs in turners like chicken eggs traditionally are, not in their sides and it is too late to fix them as some appear to be close to pipping. I tried to take photos but the quality is terrible and my last two photos are the same egg, it has a crack in it from the inside because you can't feel it but when i candled I could see a dark spot over the crack. I'm in a panic right now because I can't lose these eggs. Here are the photos on my Flickrhttps://flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157682676410305 I am very scared of losing these eggs. Could I take out the incubator's turners and lay them on the plastic grate below? It's an A&I Brooder Incubator and it's all plastic. Please help me if you can!
I am a bit confused?......Were these started after 14 days of having them?...Sorry... Hope it works out...
No, we ordered them and they came to our door fourteen days later. So I'm not sure of how long these eggs have been around.
Oh.....I see.........After about 10 days they lose fertility.....The ones you showed...I seen one with veining...70% humidity is a bit too high....50% at the beginning and then 40 the last week is what works for me...I then lock down at 60%........
So you received duck eggs that had already been started for incubating? That's how I'm reading that you received eggs on 28MAR and candled one which looked like it was on day 12. What company does that? That's crazy. They wouldn't be viable once they arrived. If it is a real company, they have to know fertility goes down as time goes on, so they likely had other orders that had to be filled first and then your's went out, but they should not have been started already. When you candled them the day they arrived, they should have been clear.
I may have candled rhem wrong, which is what it seems to be. I've got a chart from Metzer Farms but I am terrible at distinguishing which egg looks how old.... I think that might be my problem. Thi bis my first time not having someone more experienced help me candle them and that may have been my mistake.
I, too, was very confused at reading this. Candling should be done from the time the eggs are set. If you set eggs, for example, on a Saturday, The following Saturday would be day seven, no matter whether the eggs were set immediately after being laid or if you had kept them for several days. For example, when I set eggs in the incubator they can be anything from just being collected to five days old but a week later, they are all on day 7.\ Candling days don't start until after the eggs are in the incubator.
The eggs had not been in an incubator before they were send to you, right? I don't really understand what is going on... If you candle them, and you can see veins they might be alive still. If your temperature is a bit low it could take a few extra days, but a lot of things weren't in favour of your eggs: being shipped, being at least 14 days old and the humidity. If they are in lockdown now, stop turning them and maybe lower the humidity untill you have an external pip.
