I had 8 Golden Cascade duck eggs, and 12 Rouen eggs (for my neighbor) due to hatch today. For some reason they started hatching on day 25. I've had two water wigglers reading 99.5 the whole time and two other thermometers reading air temps of 100-102. All four units measure humidity and its been in the 66-73% range for incubation. When I went to turn the eggs for the last time and up the humidity on day 25, I found pips! So I quickly added more water and a wet washcloth and quit messing with them. Nearly all the ducklings pipped the shells and died. The ones that didn't pip shells I have now checked out and they all managed to pip into the air cell, but then died. Out of 20 eggs that had made it that far, only TWO ducklings managed to hatch (both Rouens), and they seem to be doing great. Of course, those are for my neighbor, so now after 28 days of turning and monitoring and preparing, I am empty handed, or will be tonight when the two survivors go to their new mama. And I am just sick at the thought of all those babies expiring in their shells - the poor dears. Worse, I don't know what the heck happened. I suppose the fact that they didn't have the extra humidity for 3 days ahead of hatch (since they hatched early) wasn't good. Plus I had opened the top too because I didn't know they had begun hatching, so maybe they got too chilled... I'm just sick about it and don't know if I have the willpower to go through this again.
I really wanted Golden Cascades and I only want about 3-4, so ordering live ducklings really isn't an option. On a positive note, there WERE two survivors, and look at how darling they are:
