Newbie here - Mallard duck eggs - dead or alive?

[duckrescuer62]

Hello! My son rescued seven Mallard duck eggs. With no experience when it comes to eggs at all we are now trying to figure out if these eggs are still alive and how old they are. They were all in the same nest. From what we've learned here so far veins are a good sign and a dark "blob" is a good sign too. We tried candling and expected all eggs would look similar as they should be the same age, but it turns out they look different. Can anyone tell us which eggs look healthy, how old they are and how we can tell if what's inside is actually alive? The longish dark spot at the top left of number 4 is on the shell, not inside.

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[MGG]

Hello! My son rescued seven Mallard duck eggs. With no experience when it comes to eggs at all we are now trying to figure out if these eggs are still alive and how old they are. They were all in the same nest. From what we've learned here so far veins are a good sign and a dark "blob" is a good sign too. We tried candling and expected all eggs would look similar as they should be the same age, but it turns out they look different. Can anyone tell us which eggs look healthy, how old they are and how we can tell if what's inside is actually alive? The longish dark spot at the top left of number 4 is on the shell, not inside.

Any help is much appreciated.

Can you candle from the air cell down? It's too dark to tell much from the sides.
This is the best candling position

What kind of incubator are you using and what temp and humidity is it at? Are you turning the eggs? Also you should have another calibrated thermometer and hygrometer to check accuracy with.

ETA : Welcome to BYC!

 

[duckrescuer62]

Can you candle from the air cell down? It's too dark to tell much from the sides.
This is the best candling position View attachment 3946028

What kind of incubator are you using and what temp and humidity is it at? Are you turning the eggs? Also you should have another calibrated thermometer and hygrometer to check accuracy with.

ETA : Welcome to BYC!

Thanks for the quick reply! Here is my second try at photos. I hope they are better. As for incubator - we've got the eggs in a box with holes in the top, eggs in it on paper towel with a glass of water. The box sits in front of the fire and temperature in the box is around 38/39 degrees Celsius. Can't check humidity though.

 

[MGG]

Thanks for the quick reply! Here is my second try at photos. I hope they are better. As for incubator - we've got the eggs in a box with holes in the top, eggs in it on paper towel with a glass of water. The box sits in front of the fire and temperature in the box is around 38/39 degrees Celsius. Can't check humidity though.

No problem! Second and third look a bit iffy to me. The rest look good. They're young though, probably only 7-10 days. That puts you at almost 3 weeks left. I would buy an incubator ASAP. Your current setup will not work well long term. You can probably find a cheap used one on Facebook marketplace. I'd also find a few good meat thermometers and a couple digital thermometers to calibrate and check temp with. You need to keep it at 99.5 or at the very least 99.1-99.9 at all times. Turn them 3-5 times a day or as much as possible. Either that or I'd look for a rescue that will take them in. Wild mallards still fall under the migratory bird treaty act and are technically illegal to be in possession of if they're not from captive bred birds.