When did your "quitters" quit?

[hfchristy]

I know you're not supposed to count your chicks before they hatch, and all that, but at some point you need to make an educated guess about how many ducklings you need to fit in your brooder!

Looks like probably 21 of the 23 eggs we set are fertile. Are there certain windows when most of the losses happen? If we make it through the first week, then is hatch itself the biggest thing to worry about? Or should we expect to lose a few all along the way?

 

[ChristineR]

I think there's a reason that "don't count your chickens before they hatch" is a popular idiom - it's good advice.

Still, in my experience, duck eggs either quit very early or very late (during or right before hatch), but that's not always true. This hatch I have going right now had a few 3rd week quitters, which doesn't usually happen to me. I think it depends on why they quit, but there are many reasons they could quit, so it's hard to predict.

Are they your own eggs or shipped eggs? I lose way more shipped eggs than eggs from my own flock. If I had 21 fertile eggs from my own flock, I would usually get 18 or 19 ducklings. With shipped eggs, I might lose up to half of the total eggs set.

Sorry, I know that wasn't much help.