Update on my duck eggs.

[Enigmius]

I candled three of the eggs that I put in the incubator on 6/4/19. I have been still adding eggs to the incubator over the last week until today. One of the original three had a reddish ring around the midline of the egg's center circumference. I am assuming that one is dead. Two other eggs form 6/4/19 definitely have veins and movement inside, but I do not see and air sack at all. This is the 11th day. Surely I should see an air sack right?

 

[Enigmius]

Here are the eggs dated 6/4/19—6/7/19

 

[Enigmius]

Egg two and four have motion. The last egg has that weird ring, which I think means it is dead.
Why does the bottom(pointy part of egg) look so much lighter that the rest of the egg, and why can’t I see an air sack on the top( fat end)?

 

[Enigmius]

Yeah I don't know if I'll ever do this again. It is so stressful. I have no idea why my eggs look different from every chart out there. I still see movement inside them though. Sigh

 

[Enigmius]

I bought a new led flashlight and now I can see the aircel at the top of the egg if I put the light on the top(the fat end). That is a relief. I still don't know why my eggs have all of the fluid at the bottom though. Most of the birdlings inside are moving about. Some wiggle about in quick big motions. I could even see thready looking legs kicking about in one of them. Some of the older ones seem to move in either smaller motions or move more slowly in general. I hope that isn't a bad sign if they are moving slower than they were the other day. A couple of them I couldn't see them moving at first . I had to move the flashlight in all kinds of directions and finally I was able to see through the dark portion and their motions became apparent. That was a relief.

Unfortunately one egg didn't make it. I could see the outline of the bird inside, there was no motion, and it had a bad smell. I was thinking this one might not make it, because when I harvested the egg to incubate I could feel by weight and texture that the shell was a little thin. But I thought I would give it a try, and perhaps I would be wrong. But alas it was not to be.

It still makes me quite sad to see motion inside and then become aware that they didn't make it. So far, two have become dropouts; today's egg and an earlier one I mentioned that had that red ring on the inside. I have 16 eggs left which had been harvest over the following timeframe 6/4/19--6/17/19.

I'm afraid to get my hopes up, but we are marching forward atm.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

 

[Enigmius]

Lastnight I noticed that there are temp variances throughout the incubator box. The heating/fan is not in the center; in fact it is closer to the back of the incubator. I also noticed that my themostat cord was far away from the heating element. Since I don't have a full incubator I can move the eggs closer to the heater/fan and make sure that the thermocord is right underneath or near the same heater. I also placed my external thermometer near the heat source also.

I just got through checking all my eggs, and all(the ones older than a week with development) have motion inside. In fact they are much more active today than they were yesterday, even the older guys. That makes me super happy, as I was a tad worried yesterday. I don't know if my changes in the incubator last night really helped out or not, but the signs are good today.

There are two eggs that were harvest on or around 6/10/19 that don't have any development inside. These might be infertile, because the one harvested on 6/12/19 is starting to get veins inside. But I'll keep them in a little longer just in case they were the ones in a cooler spot in the incubator. Well, they don't smell yet anyway.

I on't know what I'm going to do for lock down yet. I'm thinking about buying another incubator in the future to place the one's ready to hatch. But my problem is that I have been placing the eggs into the egg-turning incubator each day right after being laid. I wonder if that is going to be a problem. How do open the lockdown box each day to add a new egg without affecting the humidity? Or can I just put them in "week" groups(all the eggs harvest during one week go into the lockdown incubator box even if they all started incubating on different days)? And what about turning? Do they have to turn still?

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Lastnight I noticed that there are temp variances throughout the incubator box. The heating/fan is not in the center; in fact it is closer to the back of the incubator. I also noticed that my themostat cord was far away from the heating element. Since I don't have a full incubator I can move the eggs closer to the heater/fan and make sure that the thermocord is right underneath or near the same heater. I also placed my external thermometer near the heat source also.

I just got through checking all my eggs, and all(the ones older than a week with development) have motion inside. In fact they are much more active today than they were yesterday, even the older guys. That makes me super happy, as I was a tad worried yesterday. I don't know if my changes in the incubator last night really helped out or not, but the signs are good today.

There are two eggs that were harvest on or around 6/10/19 that don't have any development inside. These might be infertile, because the one harvested on 6/12/19 is starting to get veins inside. But I'll keep them in a little longer just in case they were the ones in a cooler spot in the incubator. Well, they don't smell yet anyway.

I on't know what I'm going to do for lock down yet. I'm thinking about buying another incubator in the future to place the one's ready to hatch. But my problem is that I have been placing the eggs into the egg-turning incubator each day right after being laid. I wonder if that is going to be a problem. How do open the lockdown box each day to add a new egg without affecting the humidity? Or can I just put them in "week" groups(all the eggs harvest during one week go into the lockdown incubator box even if they all started incubating on different days)? And what about turning? Do they have to turn still?

Hi Enigmius, in the future, you can avoid having a staggered hatch like this by collecting for a week or even two, and storing eggs together at a cool temperature (55 F or so is best). Then you allow them to come to room temp, then set all at once in an incubator. This mimics what mama duck does when she is laying a clutch so that they all hatch at about the same time. In your current circumstance, the best thing to do would be to have a separate Hatcher where you put them at lockdown. If you don’t have that, then you'll need to somehow separate the younger eggs at hatchtime so they aren’t made into footballs by hatching ducks! Hopefully those eggs would be far enough along that they wouldn’t be damaged if you don’t turn for a few days so you can keep humidity up. Or you can do something like spray warm water to keep humidity up when you go to turn the younger eggs. Good luck with your eggs!

 

[Enigmius]

Hi Enigmius, in the future, you can avoid having a staggered hatch like this by collecting for a week or even two, and storing eggs together at a cool temperature (55 F or so is best). Then you allow them to come to room temp, then set all at once in an incubator. This mimics what mama duck does when she is laying a clutch so that they all hatch at about the same time. In your current circumstance, the best thing to do would be to have a separate Hatcher where you put them at lockdown. If you don’t have that, then you'll need to somehow separate the younger eggs at hatchtime so they aren’t made into footballs by hatching ducks! Hopefully those eggs would be far enough along that they wouldn’t be damaged if you don’t turn for a few days so you can keep humidity up. Or you can do something like spray warm water to keep humidity up when you go to turn the younger eggs. Good luck with your eggs!

Thanks for your reply. Yeah, I've pretty much decided to buy another incubator and remove the egg tray. This will be the lock down incubator. This way I can keep the younger eggs in the original egg-turning incubator.
How long can an egg go without turning, if I pull eggs for the lockdown by weeks. Can they go in the lockdown-incubator 3 days earlier than their scheduled lockdown date, and without turning survive do you think?

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Thanks for your reply. Yeah, I've pretty much decided to buy another incubator and remove the egg tray. This will be the lock down incubator. This way I can keep the younger eggs in the original egg-turning incubator.
How long can an egg go without turning, if I pull eggs for the lockdown by weeks. Can they go in the lockdown-incubator 3 days earlier than their scheduled lockdown date, and without turning survive do you think?

Turning is most important earlier on, so eggs are probably fine without turning a few days before normal lockdown...