[jonnyh13]

Hi all,
my name is jon and i love muscovy ducks i have a trio of very young ducklings, i have in my incubator 4 silver appleyard duck eggs, one of them is dead and the other 3 were fine 3 days ago but i cant see any movement any more and theres no sound, im now on day 28 and not sure wot to do now,
leave them for a while? if so how long for before i call it a failure,
break open the eggs that were live a while ago and see what happen, i dont want to really do that,
any help would be very greatful thanks

jon

[jaykay]

Do you have a candler?  If so, you can look and see if you can see movement - at this stage you should. You can see them breaking into the airspace. If you can see a beak against the shell, i often break the shell very carefully at this point and make a air hole. Then keep the humidity high and let them get in with it.

If no candler, a light bulb inside a cardboard box, with a 10p sized hole in will do, if you can make the room dark otherwise.

Eggs can be a day or so late and be fine.

[Mammyshaz]

Hello Jon, welcome from Durham. 

Hope things go ok and you have some fluffy ducklings soon.

[darkbrowneggs]

I don't generally like to do this but as a last result you can get a deep bowl of water at the same temp as the inccy, place the eggs in and watch them. 
 
They will all float, but if you stand still and look carefully those which are alive will show little tremors of movement.

[jonnyh13]

thanks for the advice everyone,

i have floated the eggs and 2 of the eggs are still alive, my temp is 36.5 degrees and humidity is 75% and I'm trying to keep it all at this, this is not easy as its an old type still air incubator.
i think some of the reason of this late hatch is due to my incubator was in the kitchen and the temp was far from constant from the back door being left open and the oven on then off,
so wot do i do next leave the eggs for a few more days ?
help them out?
Ive never had this happen before and i have had good hatch rate from last years ducklings,

cheers for everything

Jon

[sabrina]

Could the shells be too hard for ducklings to get out. Had this with chickens, 

[jonnyh13]

there is a strong possibility but how do i help?

[jaykay]

See my post above about how to help.
Yes, they could be delayed if they've been a bit cooler, so could still be fine.

[jonnyh13]

hi again,

right i have opened the the egg at the air sack end, i haven't opened the membrane inside i don't know if to or wait for them to do it there selves, i just got to wait now i guess see wot happens,
the other two eggs a dont know if to take out the incubator or not
they are dead as they are a deep red and the shell is really dark from the outside, one egg has bits floating around the other has air bubbles inside with the duckling so i guess this is going bad?

cheers