Well, we blew it - We are on Day 23 of Duck Incubation and the Air Sack is Day 14

[New duck mommy 2021]

I have 17 eggs. Should I just take a sampling or try and find the first one that pips?

Candle them all
You may not have to up humidity on day 25 of babies haven’t pipped yet
This gives you extra time to get the air cells bigger and get more liquid to evaporate

 

[HeatherKellyB]

What incubator are you using? I only ask because checking each air cell is going to be much more difficult in some incubators vs others. A lot of people use the Nuture Right 360 and it's easy to check air cells without opening the incubator. With some of the Styrofoam incubators it seems like it would be more difficult to check each egg. @BirdsBeesTrees uses one of these successfully and will know more about using one of these.

 

[DuckMagistra]

Guide to Assisted Hatching for All Poultry

Here is the article I refer to before any intervention. Since you've hatched ducks before, you know how painfully slow it can be

Humidity is 55% right now with the vent open and no water added x 2 days.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

What incubator are you using? I only ask because checking each air cell is going to be much more difficult in some incubators vs others. A lot of people use the Nuture Right 360 and it's easy to check air cells without opening the incubator. With some of the Styrofoam incubators it seems like it would be more difficult to check each egg. @BirdsBeesTrees uses one of these successfully and will know more about using one of these.

I use a styrofoam one
As long as nobody has pipped it should be okay
Once there is a pip then you have to just sit on your hands as you can’t see anything other then rocking or external pips ( that part sucks )

 

[WVduckchick]

Leave vents open always. Throughout incubation. Always.

Increase humidity with the first INTERNAL pip.

Once the air cell starts drawing down, they should internally pip shortly after.


The egg in the picture on page 1 looks clear to me. It should be mostly dark by now, though white birds look a little less dark than others. Do my eyes deceive me?

 

[WVduckchick]

Also, check the red link in my signature block below, Incubation Humidity. It might be helpful for future hatches.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/incubation-humidity.73386/

 

[DuckMagistra]

Leave vents open always. Throughout incubation. Always.

Increase humidity with the first INTERNAL pip.

Once the air cell starts drawing down, they should internally pip shortly after.


The egg in the picture on page 1 looks clear to me. It should be mostly dark by now, though white birds look a little less dark than others. Do my eyes deceive me?

Here is a picture from today. The lower humidity really helped. I cannot believe how much they changed in just 2 days. The humidity is 36%.

Do you have a hydrometer to gage to relative humidity inside the incubator?

Yikes. We went to do lockdown and 4 of them have externally pipped. It is way too early.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Here is a picture from today. The lower humidity really helped. I cannot believe how much they changed in just 2 days. The humidity is 36%.

Yikes. We went to do lockdown and 4 of them have externally pipped. It is way too early.

What day is it? These are Pekins?

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Looks like today is Day 25. Did you have a calibrated thermometer inside the incubator during incubation? Higher temperatures or hot spots in the incubator can cause early hatchers. Ducks are slow to hatch, so these 4 external pips still might be another day give or take.

 

[DuckMagistra]

Looks like today is Day 25. Did you have a calibrated thermometer inside the incubator during incubation? Higher temperatures or hot spots in the incubator can cause early hatchers. Ducks are slow to hatch, so these 4 external pips still might be another day give or take.

What day is it? These are Pekins?

Do you count the day you start them as Day 1? If so, it is Day 26. I was thinking the first day was Day 0, but that is wrong, isn't it. These are Pekins and Mallard/Pekin mixes. There are 5 who have externally pipped. One is on the wrong side of the air cell, so I made a small hole over the bruised area and exposed the beak like it said in the article. He is moving. We painted all the membranes that are exposed with coconut oil and upped the humidity to 65%. The termperature is 37.5 C. A 6th just pipped externally. This is crazy!