Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: redspookycooky on March 04, 2012, 10:43

Title: Strange air sac
Post by: redspookycooky on March 04, 2012, 10:43

I`m hatching duck eggs and seem to be having a problem with the shape of the air sac. We have lost 2 already that were developing well, the top of the air sac seemed to develop properly but then it looked like it started to creep down the side of the egg as well (at the moment its about quarter of the way down the egg) on one side, so the duckling seems to run out of space to grow.
The 2 we lost got to about day 23 before the died.
Currently we have 2 out of 6 on day 20 that look like they could possibly go that way as well, all these were from the same batch but the others were from 2 different batches.
I got through the post and let them sit for 24 hours before i set them.
Any ideas how i can prevent this or help the ducklings that are currently in shell with this problem? thanks

Title: Re: Strange air sac
Post by: kegs on March 04, 2012, 12:56

I haven't hatched duck eggs so I'm sure an expert will be along shortly.  I believe though that the air sack should measure a quarter to a third of the egg at the time of hatching.  What temperature and humidity levels have you had your incubator set at?  What type of incubator do you have and is it manual or are you turning the eggs yourself?  What breed of duck eggs are you trying to hatch? 

Title: Re: Strange air sac
Post by: redspookycooky on March 04, 2012, 15:14

Hi its an old curfew manual incubator, temp is 37.5 and humidity is 50%, and they are khaki campbells.