Hatching Rouen Duck Eggs

[farmlife27]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here, and first time hatching eggs in an incubator. My Rouen laid her first egg on Nov 2, 2022. She would lay them everywhere, and has laid one every day since then. I decided to put them in the incubator, and after doing so, I think I read somewhere you aren't supposed to hatch her first eggs. It was too late at this point because I couldn't bring myself to take them out (I could see little heartbeats in them). I originally placed 7 eggs, 5 of the 7 took. I believe of those 5, 3 eggs ended up passing. I took those out. Fast forward to now..

Today is Day 29, I have 2 eggs in lockdown. The temp and humidity (per the manual instructions) has been set at 37.8 C and around 60% since placing them into it. It has fluctuated some (between 58-65). I checked them before "lockdown" and saw movement. I have been watching them like a hawk for two days lol. I don't see movement any longer, the air sac is still the same (at the fat end of the egg). It hasn't "drawn down", on top of not seeing movement. Is it possible they have passed on? Or is it normal for the air sac to be the same at the bottom, and no movement when looking at the egg? I'm not sure if I should hold onto hope and keep waiting it out, or what... I did notice the night before last (Day 27) what appears to be "bruising" on one spot of the blunt end of egg 1, and the other egg it appears to go in a thin line around the bottom half of the egg where it sits against the bottom of the incubator.

This was my first batch ever. I was hopeful, but now...not so much? This incubator is a forced air that was brand new that was given to me, I then purchased another (still air) incubator and have 7 eggs in it with good development and movement in 6 of the 7 eggs. Those are due to hatch on 12/15/22.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Let me see if I can tag some pros on bator hatching.

@New duck mommy 2021
@Overo Mare

 

[Painted Calls]

Thanks for the tag Miss Lydia! @shawluvsbirds and @WVduckchick are by far more experienced than me at hatching. Hopefully they will stop by and share their knowledge.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I did my ducks eggs that she had not bring laying long. The eggs are much smaller the first while and csn cause hatching issues
If you saw a bruise that’s most likely the baby trying to get out but wasn’t able to break the shell
Can you take a picture of the bruise
Out of my 6 that were small eggs
2 died. One I helped to soon to much the second was a bruise at the wrong end and I had no idea what that meant
2 others I had to do full assists and the two eggs that were the bigger of the 6 hatched themselves
I learned after that I no longer incubate anything under 70 grams
Going back to the bruise you need to make a small safety hole after you see a bruise outside the air cell then wait 24 hours to do anything else
You treat it like an internal pip.
If your eggs are smaller be prepared to assist as often they don’t have room to move and turn to correctly hatch but they can still be perfectly healthy babies. Mine will be a year this month and doing amazing
Also pics of the second egg
I can help you all the way to hatch if they are still alive

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

This is my wrong end baby I did hatch after I learned what the bruise meant. I made a small hole where the first bruise was in the middle then left her for 24 hours. The next day the bruise was bigger and over. I made a second hole in the middle of that bruise the size of a pencil eraser and the long hatch begins. This baby took 52 hours from the first little hole and she still had a tiny yolk to absorb another 2 hours out of the egg. So be very patient they are long hatchers
This egg was under mom and her only egg to make it out of the 8 as she went broody a few weeks after me and her babies died not being able to get out as the eggs were small
I took hope away and had to assist as it was my last chance to save one of her eggs
She will be one on Jan 10 and also no issues and going great.

 

[farmlife27]

I did my ducks eggs that she had not bring laying long. The eggs are much smaller the first while and csn cause hatching issues
If you saw a bruise that’s most likely the baby trying to get out but wasn’t able to break the shell
Can you take a picture of the bruise
Out of my 6 that were small eggs
2 died. One I helped to soon to much the second was a bruise at the wrong end and I had no idea what that meant
2 others I had to do full assists and the two eggs that were the bigger of the 6 hatched themselves
I learned after that I no longer incubate anything under 70 grams
Going back to the bruise you need to make a small safety hole after you see a bruise outside the air cell then wait 24 hours to do anything else
You treat it like an internal pip.
If your eggs are smaller be prepared to assist as often they don’t have room to move and turn to correctly hatch but they can still be perfectly healthy babies. Mine will be a year this month and doing amazing
Also pics of the second egg
I can help you all the way to hatch if they are still alive

Thank you! I've taken a couple of pics and included them. Her eggs are pretty large, from her first egg on 11/2/22 up to now (12/6/22) are about the same size, definitely a looott bigger than the chicken eggs lol! The "bruises" didn't form until I put them in "lockdown". I have researched for two days over this, and finally decided to just post and ask because I don't want to toss them thinking they are gone, but i also don't want to keep "holding on to hope" and have rotting eggs sitting here either lol. Thank you for your help!

So the dirtier egg, that (i believe) is the first egg she laid (11/2). The cleaner egg, that was her 7th egg. I put them in the incubator on 11/7/22 around noon. I had 5 more in there, but they stopped developing so I tossed them. I still am not seeing movement when holding the light to them..

ETA: The "bruise" on the clean egg, since last night, one has started forming on the pointy end of the egg as well.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Thank you! I've taken a couple of pics and included them. Her eggs are pretty large, from her first egg on 11/2/22 up to now (12/6/22) are about the same size, definitely a looott bigger than the chicken eggs lol! The "bruises" didn't form until I put them in "lockdown". I have researched for two days over this, and finally decided to just post and ask because I don't want to toss them thinking they are gone, but i also don't want to keep "holding on to hope" and have rotting eggs sitting here either lol. Thank you for your help!

So the dirtier egg, that (i believe) is the first egg she laid (11/2). The cleaner egg, that was her 7th egg. I put them in the incubator on 11/7/22 around noon. I had 5 more in there, but they stopped developing so I tossed them. I still am not seeing movement when holding the light to them..

ETA: The "bruise" on the clean egg, since last night, one has started forming on the pointy end of the egg as well.

This is tricky
I haven’t seen bruising like that before
I’m not seeing any veins But it is pics and not always easy to see
If the baby is alive you will see veins along the air cell as usually we can’t see much more then that with a dark egg
You should see some kind of flickering movements but not a lot at this stage as baby is so big they don’t move to much
I’m concerned that the air cells didn’t drop down they look pretty tiny
In some of my eggs I can take the flashlight and look in the egg from little areas and see veins or movement depending how baby is in the egg. Can you try this and see if you can see anything in any part of the egg
I lost one this summer right at hatch time who never got his beak yo yo the shell. I saw veins and hours later no veins and no movement. I was surprised how quickly the veins went away
I also just had this happen to my twins
That night movement was good at 3 am I saw a bruise outside the air cell and no movement and veins were gone both babies had died running out of air.

 

[farmlife27]

This is tricky
I haven’t seen bruising like that before
I’m not seeing any veins But it is pics and not always easy to see
If the baby is alive you will see veins along the air cell as usually we can’t see much more then that with a dark egg
You should see some kind of flickering movements but not a lot at this stage as baby is so big they don’t move to much
I’m concerned that the air cells didn’t drop down they look pretty tiny
In some of my eggs I can take the flashlight and look in the egg from little areas and see veins or movement depending how baby is in the egg. Can you try this and see if you can see anything in any part of the egg
I lost one this summer right at hatch time who never got his beak yo yo the shell. I saw veins and hours later no veins and no movement. I was surprised how quickly the veins went away
I also just had this happen to my twins
That night movement was good at 3 am I saw a bruise outside the air cell and no movement and veins were gone both babies had died running out of air.

Awe.. I just tried that again, moving the egg around and putting the flashlight up to several different spots. Still not seeing any movement at all :/ the air sac at the bottom is clear/white. No veins or anything on it.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Awe.. I just tried that again, moving the egg around and putting the flashlight up to several different spots. Still not seeing any movement at all :/ the air sac at the bottom is clear/white. No veins or anything on it.

I would give it another day but it’s very possible they didn’t make it

 

[farmlife27]

I would give it another day but it’s very possible they didn’t make it

:/ awe man.. that stinks.. Thank you for the advice! I will give it another day or so and see if there is any progress but i'm kind of thinking they didn't make it I already had that feeling but it helps to have another set of eyes to make ya feel better about it