More ducklings and pics lol.

[arctally]

I candled my duck eggs, 8 of them, a few days ago. Two were rotten, four more were just duds, and two looked like maybe they had embryo shadows. All but one of the six culls were not fertile to begin with including the two rots, the one that was fertile had no growth at all so I think I must have gotten to it too late.

I've been candling the two remaining eggs fanatically looking for some sign of growth. I haven't noticed any change in size or shape of the embryo shadows or any distinct blood vessels but the area around the embryo shadows is very slightly redder than on Friday and the air cells are more distinct (humidity has been stable). Should I wait another week before I decide to toss them or should I be seeing definite development by now?



Also I wish I had known Cayugas laid black and partially black eggs! I feel like an idiot now because I threw out two potentially good eggs because they were black and I thought they must have gone really off (I had a cold so I couldn't smell anything). Lol, beginner bumble I guess.


Oh! I forgot to mention that the eggs are at day 9 of incubation. I guess that might be important lol.

 

[the funny farm6]

It shouldn't hurt anything to leave them in a little longer. They shouldn't go that bad in just another week or so. My duck eggs I couldn't tell anything untill about the 2 week mark. Keeping my fingers crossed for ya.

 

[mrscoyote]

I agree, I would just wait and see what happens.
Nancy

 

[arctally]

Thanks! I'm very new to this so I really have no idea what I'm doing lol.

 

[arctally]

Sad day, the last two eggs from my cayuga turned out to be duds. I was hoping for two broods so I pestered my MIL and she gave me 15 of her duck eggs! 7 from a pekin with a campbell, and 8 from one of last years pekin/campbell ducklings with either the campbell or another of last years pekin/campbells. So far two were duds and two were early quitters. Two more don't look so good but I'm gonna wait another week before I decide what to do with them.

 

[arctally]

So two of the 15 I got from MIL were duds and 8 have quit on me, four very early. The last one to quit was alive and kicking just yesterday (day 13). Today, it was stuck against it's shell and not moving at all and the red color had gone from most of the egg. When I opened it up there were little green stringy fluid things floating in the egg contents! Could they be from a bacterial infection? I noticed there was moisture pooling under one side of the carton the eggs were in so maybe that's why I'm losing so many from this batch.

Just in case, I moved my wet bulb thermometer to a different spot in the incubator and replaced the carton with a rice bag on top of a plastic bread bag. Hopefully that means water can't wick into it and up against the eggs. I hope I don't lose any more.

 

[arctally]

My blue swedish broody duck hatched out her brood yesterday! She had them out today and the Cayuga who tried to go broody was out with them. There are six, five dark ones and one light one. Four of the dark ones have white wing tips lol, it's so cute! I'm so glad to see that my drake is as sweet as I thought he was, he's accepted the ducklings without any fuss. Good breeder too, I think I'll keep him .

I knew the Cayuga had more eggs in there but with the ducklings out I was afraid she'd let them get cold so I raided the nest. There were 14 more eggs! One was part of the way out of his shell but very much dead. One shell was broken to the point that yolk and veins were poking out, the duckling was still alive but not ready to hatch, would have needed another few days but I didn't think it'd be able to turn around with the shell collapsed so I tossed it ;_;. Candled the remaining 12. 4 were either duds or early quitters. Three are almost ready to hatch so I put them in the incubator a little lower than the others so that they'll be a little cooler, I hope they hatch. The last five are from the Cayuga and are around the same stage as the eggs I got from my MIL so I put them into the incubator too.

 

[Denim Deb]

Hope they make it.

 

[the funny farm6]

Good luck!

 

[BarredBuff]

Good luck! I love baby ducks!!