[redspookycooky]

I`m having real problems getting my ducks to hatch out of their shells, they are piping then 24-36 hours later they have got no further at all.
my first duckling hatched out fine, the 2nd wasn`t getting anywhere after 36 hours so we checked and we`d lost it, the 3rd was in the same boat as the 2nd so we hatched it out ourselves and is absolutely now.
Next hatch due and after 28 hours no further forward again so have had to hatch this one out as well, another piped last night and not made any more progress yet.
I ran humidity at 40% till day 25 then upped it to 80%, but all mine are piping on day 25, temp was 37.5-37.8.
Any ideas on what i`m doing wrong?
Why are they hatching earlier (khaki campbells) than they should?
My nervous can`t take any more as we`ve just ordered another 12 to hatch and can`t cope having to hatch these out myself.
Any help or advice greatly appreciated, thanks

[Casey76]

It sounds like your humiditiy needs to be a bit higher during the first 25 days.

Duck eggs need a higher humidity than hen eggs, so try to have humdity at about 50-55% for the first 25 days, then increase to  80% for the last three.

I know some people actually mist their eggs during the last days to keep humidity high.

If your eggs are pipping on day 25, it sound like your thermometer/incubator calibration might be out, and your ijcubator is actually running a bit hot.

Can you get a second thermomenter (often old fashioned alcohol thermometers can be more accurate than digital ones) to try, and perhaps do a dry run for a few days prior to setting your next lot of eggs?

[kegs]

I know nothing about hatching duck eggs but just in case it's of any use at all (and apologies in advance if I'm stating the obvious  ), when I add water to increase humidity I always use warm not cold.  Also, if you keep lifting the lid of the incubator to check the remaining eggs this will greatly affect the humidity for the eggs still there. 

[tstainesmoore]

sorry that you have been having some problems hatchniong ducks, this advice is only from my own personel experience, but when i hatch ducks i dont add any water to the incubator. iget 95% fertility and about 98% hatch rate from my appleyards, however this is in a brinsea incubator self turning and is kept in my workshop where there is no daylight or heating, it depends where  your incubator is kept, if the ducklings are getting stuck it could either be not enough humidity most common in winter or too much humidity most common in summer months. hope this helps a little. good luck.

[Kate and her Ducks]

I agree with Casey, your humidity was probably too low during the early stage and the temp was too high. I had a very similar problem and when I checked the temp it was almost a full degree higher than the reading said it was which certainly explained why everything hatched 3 days early or not at all!
Can I also guess that you have been opening the lid to check on them? Most of us can't resist but it does let out the humidity and dry them out preventing them from hatching. Remember it can take 3 days from pipping to hatch.

If they are really not progressing and you are starting to lose them you can help them out but this is really a last resort and you need to be very careful.

If you decide to do this then you need to remove the pipped egg from the incy. Using a tiny amount of warm warted if necessary make sure all the membranes stuck to the duckling are moist so it can move. Gradually peel back the edge of the shell and membranes from round the hole making sure that you are pulling them out rather than pushing them into the duckling. If there is any bleeding then the duckling is simply not ready to come out yet. Put them straight back! If you can see t blood vessels in the inner membrane then stop and put it back, if you damage one of these the duckling could bleed to death and it is obviously not ready as it is still perfusing the membranes lining the shell where it got it's oxygen during incubation.
If a few hours later there has been no further progress then you can reassess the situation but try to avoid repeatedly opening the inch as you will just keep dropping the humidity and make it less likely others will hatch without assistance (spraying with warm water can minimise this).

Some would advocate never doing any of this as if a duckling isn't strong enough to hatch on it's own then it is not a strong specimen and wouldn't survive in the wild. I generally don't go with this as incubation is innately artificial.