incubating wild duck eggs

[housensual]

Hi

I got 6 wild duck eggs in my Brinsea Mini Advance, I got the eggs from a neighbour who rescued them from reconstructing work in her street. The nest was ruined but from all the eggs, she was able to save 6...

Today we're at day 7 (we think, because we don't know how long the ducks were on the nest before).
If I candle them, I see a clear side and at the other side of the egg it is kinda dark, it looks like a big stain or so and it moves (floats) when I manually turn the egg (standing up) in my hand. The is also a air bubble in the bottom of the egg.

Anyone can say if they're fertile or not?
Can't say I see veins or so, it's just a clear part and a dark part in the egg.

Regards
Alain

 

[Doppelganger]

Hey Alain,

I'm in a very similar situation! https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=498264

Sounds like your progress is almost exactly where ours is at, although we can see very clear veins in our eggs. But they're also quite dark and hard to see (I suspect it's because wild duck eggs are much less transparent than domestically bred species).

We can't see any movement though, despite the veins.

I wish you the best of luck!

 

[housensual]

THX Doppelganger!

I read and I read on the internet and in books, but can't find a comfording answer...

I really would like to make most of them hatch!
The parent ducks found temporary resting place in my parents garden, and they find it quite nice probably because they are there for quite some days now... My parents make sure they have fresh water and food...
Would be nice to introduce the ducklings to their parents when they hatched... dont know if the parents would accepts their youngs but its worth more than a try!

Hopefully someone can help us out here!

Alain

 

[housensual]

Anyone?

 

[KansasBoy]

The Metzer website has a day by day candling examples... Sure it would help ya some!

http://www.metzerfarms.com/Candling.cfm

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

The aircell should be in the top (fat end) of the egg while the pointed end is down during incubation. 50% humidity during incubation and 70% at lock down. They typically take 28 days to hatch, and sho veining by day 4-6.


corrected time to hatch oopps typo sorry

 

[mandelyn]

28 days usually. If you have a dark and light side, you're farther than 7 days. I'd say you're at the half way mark with them.

Keep them going, turning twice a day and a light mist of warm water daily from a spray bottle (one of the differences between chickens and ducks)

When you see that they have almost completely blacked out the shell and you can't see much at all, put them into lockdown and bump the humidity up to 70%-80%. The higher the better, because of how thick duck shell membranes are. Should be in around 2 weeks.

If, in two weeks, they are in the same stage of development, then the transition killed them or they got too cool before being brought to you. But if you see movement (free floating inside and little ticks of movement) then they're still going and you're on track.

Ducks require a lot of patience. They can take FOREVER to hatch after they pip, 2 days seems average. Much longer than a chicken.

As far as if these eggs are fertile, once the duckling has started to form a duckling shape, it looks like half the egg is dark, and the other half is light, going up and down the length of the egg. You should see some veining but it isn't as defined as in the very early stages. Is that what you're seeing? If it's a gob in the bottom or something, that means it quit.

Do all the eggs have an air sac in the bottom or just one? That's an issue when they go to hatch. Are you sure you're not just seeing a clear spot? Or maybe it's a pointy shaped egg that's hard to tell which side is "up"?

 

[housensual]

Thanks so much for the good advice guys!!!

I'm not sure anymore about the settings on my Brinsea...
I'm candling them once every couple of days and sometimes I see movement inside the egg

It would be better to stop the "automatic turning" and turn them manually two or three times a day...'cause I put them in on different days (marked on the egg itself) but I'm not sure anymore about the settings (countdown) on my incubator...

Definitely got the "incubatin bug" in my veins now, first thing and last thing every day is checking on the eggs, see if they're alright

Lets hope all goes well!

Thanks
Alain

 

[housensual]

Forgot to answer mandelyn's questions:

"As far as if these eggs are fertile, once the duckling has started to form a duckling shape, it looks like half the egg is dark, and the other half is light, going up and down the length of the egg. You should see some veining but it isn't as defined as in the very early stages. Is that what you're seeing? If it's a gob in the bottom or something, that means it quit. "

They do look like you describe, half of the egg is dark, other half is clear and there's some veining, and if you rotate the egg the inside is moving, not very much but you see that the inside moves into the direction you rotate.

"Do all the eggs have an air sac in the bottom or just one? That's an issue when they go to hatch. Are you sure you're not just seeing a clear spot? Or maybe it's a pointy shaped egg that's hard to tell which side is "up"?"

Yes, I do believe they are air sacs, and like FLChickens said, they're in the fat end of the eggs... It's been a couple of days tho since I've candled them, I dont want to intervene too much, but if the state is different as I described I'll post it here!

Thanks!

 

[claytonjoyner15]

i know this is really old, but how did they turn out?