The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: donny on July 06, 2009, 11:52:12 pm
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Hi all
I had duck eggs in my incubator but it failed on me, i managed to try and keep things warm in a temp setup, i repaired the incubator pcb and worked fine, so, put eggs back in, out of the remaining four i was left with one.
Now as i am new to incubating i suspect that the last one has died prior to pipping...
The egg looks as though some one has drawn shapes inside the egg with a fine pencil. Hard to explain but it seems as though besides the huge air sack, it has other pockets of air in it. The egg was due for the final 28 days yesterday (sunday), but as yet all looks the same and no cheeping..
Any ideas
Regards
Don
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give it two more days and if nothing is happening open at the airsac end and see what happened. the dead chucks we have are usually at the fully formed but small stage with the odd fully formed one.
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Donny, I was trying to find your other posts - do you have any more pics of the ducks you want to know the breed of? It's hard to see on a wee pic. How big are the ducks?
:&> :&>
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Hi Don,
The fine lines are blood threads, really thin and normal, I have had problems with hatching ducks too.
Do you have a candling lamp so that you can look for a heartbeat movement? If not, give it another day then break it open at the air gap to see whats happening, sometimes we get hens that hatch two days later than the rest of them.
At the moment I have Ostrich eggs in my incubator, but my candling lamp is on the blink and I don't know if they are going to hatch or not yet.
Good Luck
Joe
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A mini maglite torch works really well!
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don't laugh, I put the egg with one hand under my jumper (it's dark in there!), held the maglite torch against the egg from below with the other and looked in through the neck hole. The things you do if you don't have a candling light, lol. And no, it's not a scary sight, I was concentrating on the egg not on the shadows or flabs! :&>
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One of my ducks started going broody before I left on holiday so she's been sitting on an egg for 8 days. Some bliddy pest went and nicked it this afternoon - don't know if it was a magpie or a rat. Haven't seen traces of rats but loads of magpies. Would one go in the pop hole for the egg? The nest box is just inside the pop hole. Have given her two more eggs, added lots more straw, and moved the nest box nearer the back of the shed. Never see Jack being very busy so they may not be fertile. Might try the maglite later on. Thanks for the tip Kerstin.
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Annie, I can still offer you a very fertile drake...if he won't find a new home soon I'll have to have him for dinner, which will be a very very big step (hurdle) to take for me...:&>
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I only have three females so it wouldn't be fair to take another drake, but thanks all the same. Jack prefers to work in the burn and there's hardly even a trickle in it just now! lol
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yes they will. they are highly intelligent and will pick there moment well.
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Two eggs still there - keeping fingers crossed it isn't a magpie. Have put down rat poison at other side of fence from hens/ducks - well out of reach and in poly bags so they can take it away with them.
How long does she sit before I can 'candle' them to see if there's anything there and what am I looking for?
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Annie they say to candle after 12 days normally but normally after a week, 8 days you can sometimes see if anything is growing or not. Good luck.
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Anything happen with those eggs?.
Joe
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Annie they say to candle after 12 days normally but normally after a week, 8 days you can sometimes see if anything is growing or not. Good luck.
Just going to check they are still there - will candle them on 16th and let the forum know if I can see anything. Saw Rosemary's two teeny babies today(eggs I gave her a few weeks ago). They are soooo cute!