[Nails]

Well put 6 alyesbury duck eggs in 25 28 days ago, and they haven't hatched!!! What have i done wrong? Kept temp at a steady 39 and humidity at 70 odd until last few days where i tried to up it to as high as it would go, candled eggs tonight and i can see no movement in the eggs at all, which tells me that the ducklings are dead, i also have some goose eggs which are at day 28 candled them and see no movement in those either, so what am i doing wrong?
Please help

[joyfull]

sorry nails, I don't know but hopefully somebody with incubator hatching experience especially in duck and goose eggs will be along soon.

[Kate and her Ducks]

Day 28 is a little early to give up on them but I would suspect you are right.

I think your main problem is going to be that you have had the temp and humidity both too high. I incubate at 37.5c and then drop it to 37c for the last 3 days. The humidity I run at about 55% and then increase to 70% for the last 3 days.

Hope that helps. I can't remember what the range is for geese having never incubate them. I would suggest getting the temp and humidity down for the last week to give them a chance

[goodegg]

sorry nails but i have to agree with kate temp too high and humidity when i do eggs now i keep them dry till last three days and then add water when i stop turning when i do ducks i add water half way through hatch and last three days

[Nails]

Oh goodness, does that mean i will lose all the others i have in there, or if i lower temp now will they be ok? Never done duck or goose, and i looked on the net and you get so much conflicting advice i am never sure what the temp should be!!!

[Kate and her Ducks]

There is a lot of random information out there and it's bad luck you seem to have found some duff stuff. When it comes to ducks I cannot recommend  Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks by Dave Holderread too highly. It is the bible to raising ducks as far as I am concerned.

I don't know what the chances are for those left in there but I would get the temp down to what it should be and drop the humidity significantly (probably best running it dry till the last three days at this point).
On the hopeful side, I discovered that my incy was running high when I measured it (about 38.3) despite saying it was 37.5 which probably accounts for previous hatches being quite early so there is still hope. Do you just have geese left or are there some ducks still left in there?

[Nails]

Kate i have 26 duck eggs in the last ones went in on sunday, Blue Indian runners, eggs cost me a fortune, i have a big inncy running which is doing the turning and then my small one which i am haching in, i will take the water out the big one now, and keep my fingers crossed. Once i have done that i will order the book from amazon.
i only have 4 goose in there at the mo.

[Nails]

Forgot to say the Duck eggs are on day 29 now so should have hatched, took them out the turning inncy on day 25, the geese eggs are also on day 29 they were taken out the turning inncy yesterday. So have a day or 2 more before they should be hatching. My own fault, was running before i could walk.

[Kate and her Ducks]

Well hopefully the ones that went in last Sunday will be ok if you get the settings down to advised levels. Some people routinely run their incubators dry but have to say I run mine at 55% and have good hatches.

[Nails]

Oh god these eggs are doomed, we had a power cut last night, electric was off for a couple of hours, i got up at 5-30 to check on my little chooks they were all huddled together, to keep warm, and i checked the eggs they were all cold. So now i think i may end up losing the lot!

[Kate and her Ducks]

Oh no!!!

Certainly seems like fate has it in for the little mites. I wouldn't give in at this stage though as they can be amazingly resilient against all odds. Get them back up to temp for a day or so and then candle them. At a week or so you should be able to clearly see the embryo and you can usually see it moving. Although if you see an embryo you won't know for sure it's alive unless you see it move, you will have something to guide you as to if it's growing in a few days time. Anything clear or with a blood ring can be discarded.

[Nails]

Hi Kate
Well i took the duck eggs out that should have hatched Thursday, thought i would take a look in there,just to see what has gone on, so this is what i found................ 1 egg, had a fully formed duckling in, which had broken through the membrane, and that is as far as it had got, 2nd egg had another fully formed duckling, but that was still in the sack, the other 4...... well i didn't want to break the membrane on them, although you could see they were fertile, and the egg had started to change, it was very runny and you could still see the yolk, so they had stopped growing very early on. But at least i know now, i am going to assume this was because the humidity was to high. i have now got the inncy running at 59-60% humdity, will try and get it a bit lower, the temp i have down to 37.8, and am still tweeking that.

[Kate and her Ducks]

I hope some of them make it for you.

[Nails]

Well got a second opinion on my eggs today, after losing 6 Aylesburys before they hatched, i have thrown away 11 goose eggs, 7 duck and a chook egg today, as they have all stopped developing, losts of watery stuff in the eggs and you can see the yolk mixing with the white, bit disappointed, had my friend candle the eggs, as she has been doing this a lot longer than me, and knows what she is looking for! On the up side the 12 blue runners all by 1 are fertile and looking ok, plus 10 more Aylesburys. So fingers crossed.

[Nails]

Hi Kate
My book arrived today, so now have some reading to do!!! Thanks for suggesting it.