# Ducklings Not Hatching



## Ebony Queen

We have about 40 duck eggs in the incubator right now and they are due to hatch tomorrow. We have read that duck eggs take longer to hatch than chickens, about 24 hours. We had 3 overachievers who started pipping and poking at their shells yesterday. Turns out 2 had died in their shells and the 3rd barely made it. We've been misting the eggs and stopped turning 2 days ago. Usually pipping sounds are heard LONG before the birds actually break out of their shells and so far the incubator has been silent. What are we doing wrong? This is our first batch of ducks but still, we've been hatching chickens for months and we've had maybe 10 deaths out of the 80 eggs we've incubated. Please help! Is there anything we can do to help the ducks that are still not pipping?


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## mjs500doo

Ebony Queen said:


> We have about 40 duck eggs in the incubator right now and they are due to hatch tomorrow. We have read that duck eggs take longer to hatch than chickens, about 24 hours. We had 3 overachievers who started pipping and poking at their shells yesterday. Turns out 2 had died in their shells and the 3rd barely made it. We've been misting the eggs and stopped turning 2 days ago. Usually pipping sounds are heard LONG before the birds actually break out of their shells and so far the incubator has been silent. What are we doing wrong? This is our first batch of ducks but still, we've been hatching chickens for months and we've had maybe 10 deaths out of the 80 eggs we've incubated. Please help! Is there anything we can do to help the ducks that are still not pipping?


Duck eggs normally take 28 days, chickens only take 21 days. As a general rule of thumb if you hear true pipping on the egg itself you should be able to candle the egg and see cracks, and if you do, expect that egg to hatch within 24 hours. Pipping in my chicken flock begins at day 19-20 and everybody is usually out and fluffy by day 22.

How many have actually made it out of the shell? Any? If not, I expect they have another week. What is your current temp and humidity level?


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## onehorse_2000

I would give them a couple of more days and then if not, start cracking eggs to see what is going on. Did they start to develop, if so how far along did they get. I need to set my incubators totally different for ducks then chickens, ducks need a lot more humidity throughout the incubation period then chickens and I usually need to drop the temp in the incubator, a little. I usually run my chickens aroun 99.6 in an air-circulation system and 99.3 for ducks in the same system. Ducks also seem to be more prone to dieases in the shell that will stop development, so you will need to make sure that the incubator is clean before starting. Ducks aren't as easy as everyone thinks.



Ebony Queen said:


> We have about 40 duck eggs in the incubator right now and they are due to hatch tomorrow. We have read that duck eggs take longer to hatch than chickens, about 24 hours. We had 3 overachievers who started pipping and poking at their shells yesterday. Turns out 2 had died in their shells and the 3rd barely made it. We've been misting the eggs and stopped turning 2 days ago. Usually pipping sounds are heard LONG before the birds actually break out of their shells and so far the incubator has been silent. What are we doing wrong? This is our first batch of ducks but still, we've been hatching chickens for months and we've had maybe 10 deaths out of the 80 eggs we've incubated. Please help! Is there anything we can do to help the ducks that are still not pipping?


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## Ebony Queen

mjs, we've already taken into account the extra week ducks take, but they still aren't hatching. None of them have made it out of the shell on their own, only 3 in total have started making cracks like I said before. The one that we have now we had to break out of his shell. He's going good now which gives us new hope, but he had some dark, blackish goo in his egg. We're not sure, but the yolk with the chickens never turned that color, if there was any yolk left to begin with. We lowered the temp day 25 and started misting the eggs with a water bottle. We've read some contradictory stuff on when to increase humidity, when to decrease, when to lower/heighten temperature, etc. onehorse, the eggs developed quite well the fiirst weeks. We candled them when they had about a week till hatching and they completely blocked out the light from flashlight. And even before, we removed all blood rings and infertile eggs to prevent explosion. We clean the incubator with every hatch and check throughout the incubation process. I think we just aren't getting the right humidity or temperature control. My parents aren't willing to buy instruments to measure the humidity so it makes that portion of the process even harder. They really want to hatch ducks though and if the instruments were completely necessary for a good, successful hatch, I'd probably be able to convince them. Thank you so much for your help!


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## JaLyn

Ok first thing never open the incubator but once a day, if you do you lose humidity and they need humidity to hatch. Once a day you can take them out. If you see one that has pipped and has been trying for several hours up to 24 hours you can help him. I know people say you can't, hog wash, i've been doing it for a few years when they need it and ended up with healthy chicks..BUT you must make sure it's an actual hold and not just a star crack. If you do it when it's just a star crack the chick hasn't had time to absorb the yolk and will be born with it on the outside and will suffer a cruel death..so only do this if they ahve actually pipped a hole. Sometimes they are upside down and at wrong end of the egg so no matter what they do they will never pip out so they need help, sometimes they aren't as strong and need help (yes these too will thrive) So back to how, get you a pair of tweezers and only pull off the shell all the way around, make a circle when you have that out gently work the egg down the body some but allow the baby to kind of finish hatching out itself..you want to be careful for it's lil umbilical chord (can't remember if thats what it's called lol but its what i call it) anyway you dont' want to just rip the shell off because that chord has to dry so basically just help baby out leave egg attached to tummy. If it's too late for these guys next time the last 3 days don't lift the lid of the incubator.Good luck


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## milk and honey

I tried to hatch a batch of Muscovy eggs a few weeks ago...a few of the dozen made it till they were fully developed, but none of them hatched.:/
So sad!... I bought 4 adults instead


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## onehorse_2000

Hatching ducklings is by far the gooeyest hatch I have, we do ducks, turkeys, and chickens. There usually is a lot of stuff left in the shells/incubator when ducklings hatch, it is usually a greyish color and it is part of the white, not the yolk, the yolk should be completely absorbed, but ducklings need a lot of white to be able to move around enough in their shell to be able to break out. If the white is more black then greyish, you might have a diease/infection issue. I don't mix eggs from different flocks/farms anymore, because I have had one lot of eggs bring something in and do in my whole hatch, because it spread in the incubator. I have found this to be much more of an issue with ducks then chickens. Don't know why, just my observation. About 3 - 5 days before hatch, you should be able to see through the eggshell and see if the duckling is alive or not. You might need to tap on the shell or check a couple of time, as they do still sleep a lot, but you should be able to see the head moving and them flex their beaks. As far as humidity, I haven't found the perfect combination yet, and this is specific to regions and incubation methods. A hydrometer/hygrometer (please excuse the spelling) would be very helpful. I know that there are incubators on the market that are absolutely horrible at keeping humidity levels and you can't see that. A hydrometer/hygrometer are pretty cheap to get, a couple- $5 plus shipping or a local cigar shop, you don't need a great one, just one that will let you know what is going on. I think that the humidity for the first 15 days is actually the most important, if they dry out to much during that period, they will be too dry to hatch and you can't fix that once done. I would try the temp at the dropped temp, a bit more humidity for the first 15 days, and see what that does for you. It sounds like your guys might be a bit too dry to be able to hatch. Yes, at this point, any you see that pip, I would carefully help out of the shell. Not too quickly though, usually I get the shell to the point that they can finish on their own, when they are ready, so that they absorb all the yolk and blood and don't blow the umbilical cord.


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## clearwtrbeach

I have to agree with what's been said. If they are fully formed and just didn't make it out of the egg, the first thing that came to mind is the humidity. If I don't give my canaries a bath in the mornings I find the lack of moisture causes them not to be able to hatch.


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## Ebony Queen

We've read that misting your eggs (on just the top) dries them out more, like licking your lips when their chapped. All eggs came from our flock so there's no contamination among the flock unless we bring it in. We try not to wash the eggs too much to wash off the protective outer layer unless it's super disgusting. We will be paying extra attention to the next batch and try to be in complete control of the humidity, as that it the biggest factor. But against all circumstances, all we doing wrong, one little duck made it. Душка (Russian for Ducky)


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## onehorse_2000

I have read about misting, but I don't do it, don't have time for it and if the humidity is right, it's right. The misting supposedly started when someone watch a Momma duck take a swim and then come back to her nest soaking wet. But, a wet duck to misting in an air circulation system, is very different. I don't wash eggs at all, the most disgusting don't go in the incubator, but I have had some pretty disgusting duck eggs hatch just fine, so I wouldn't wash anything, just hold the really nasty ones. Cute little guy, I love duckies, but they are sooo messy!


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## Marty1876

I hatch a lot of waterfowl, sorry I didn't see your post sooner. It actually takes up to 3 days for waterfowl to hatch. Misting them is good for them, in fact, ideally they will be misted and cooled every single day. Really.'

Here is a link you ought to read before your next hatch. Its easily the best hatching guide for ducks and geese, and hatching is his science speciality.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/491013/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed


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## neubunny

"ANY egg will do much better if left in the care of reliable parents for at least 66% of the incubation period" this is really interesting. 

We successfully hatched 11 ducklings last year -- all were cases where we rescued eggs from nests where the mother had been killed (never did figure out what predator was doing that - snapped the ducks' necks and left them next to the nest). None of our duck eggs that we collected and started in the incubator hatched for us.


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## HouseElfLamanchas

neubunny said:


> "ANY egg will do much better if left in the care of reliable parents for at least 66% of the incubation period" this is really interesting.
> 
> We successfully hatched 11 ducklings last year -- all were cases where we rescued eggs from nests where the mother had been killed (never did figure out what predator was doing that - snapped the ducks' necks and left them next to the nest). None of our duck eggs that we collected and started in the incubator hatched for us.


 sounds like someone with a sick mind to be honest.

we just hatched 2 ancona ducklings we are waiting on 7 more and possibly 8 if this one pipped egg didnt dry up its been pipped for 24 hours and was moving yesterday but it didnt even try and hatch that much and now we cant see it breathing in the egg through the hole it pipped and nor can we hear it peeping :/ im kinda worried lol


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