HELP PLEASE-Humidity too high? Wiggling duck eggs

[MommaC76]

I have 12 duck eggs that were rescued from a construction site. We made an incubator out of a styrofoam cooler and have maintained a fairly constant temperature of 98-100 degrees. I have been doing some research online since they arrived at our home a week ago. From candling, I guestimate the eggs to be about 22-24 days right now. Unfortunately, I misunderstood what I researched about the humidity level inside the incubator. I (mis)read that the humidity should be 75-80% during the entire incubation time.

I now know that is too high, so I took the water container out of the incubator, and also removed the shop towels they were laying on, as they were a little damp. While doing this, I noticed the eggs (all 12) are "wiggling". I think this means we are close to or at lockdown time. So now I don't know what to do with the humidity level. Will they 'drown'? HELP!!!! Thank you for any advice you have for me!

 

[shicks0211]

They won't drown..the humidity helps them to be able to hatch..i usually up the humidity at hatch time and put them on a damp towel...candle them and see if you see that they've pipped..if they have then you're right..if not then you have a few days to wait

 

[kromanin]

I found this post and I am in almost the exact same boat. I am at day 23 and just realized that the relative humidity should not be 75-80! I just took out the water trays too to hopefully make the eggs dehydrate faster but am I too late?

How did this turn out for you? Did any of them end up making it through the hatch!? Thanks!

 

[Amiga]

I have heard of humidity causing problems - perhaps @madamiec or @Lacrystol or someone on one of the hatching threads can check in.

 

[Lacrystol]

NO they absolutely should not be at 75-80, I can tell you at 80 I lost 10 Call ducks, I'll predict your future right now, you are going to have some sticky babies, you should NOT lock them down Until that air cell has dipped..

 

[kromanin]

In the book I'm using, I misread the wet bulb humidity being 80-84 as the relative humidity needing to be 80-84% and have been spraying them and keeping both trays full of water (hova-bator with fan) to keep it up high.

After only figuring it out today on day 23 I've dropped the relative humidity to 38% in hopes that they will dehydrate a bit faster. Is that also a disastrous idea? I will definitely not put them on lock down until the air cell gets bigger and dips, thanks.

I candled them last night and could see see them all moving so they were still alive but do you think there is any chance that they could actually survive and hatch?

Thanks for your help and advice, I'm obviously incredibly new at this!

 

[kromanin]

@Lacrystol do you have any more advice do help them hatch or help with sticky ducklings, and do you think there is any chance at survival through the hatch? Thanks!

 

[Lacrystol]

In the book I'm using, I misread the wet bulb humidity being 80-84 as the relative humidity needing to be 80-84% and have been spraying them and keeping both trays full of water (hova-bator with fan) to keep it up high.

After only figuring it out today on day 23 I've dropped the relative humidity to 38% in hopes that they will dehydrate a bit faster. Is that also a disastrous idea? I will definitely not put them on lock down until the air cell gets bigger and dips, thanks.

I candled them last night and could see see them all moving so they were still alive but do you think there is any chance that they could actually survive and hatch?

Thanks for your help and advice, I'm obviously incredibly new at this!

at day 23 the damage is already done. Sorry, YES, 80-84 is wet bulb a lot of us do not use a wet bulb. The lower the better during the first days of there little lives.. I just helped someone who had 9 eggs all STICKY, one was dead in the shell before we got to him, 5 have died and still working on what's left due to sticky issue. It's a HORRIBLE thing, because they bascially sufficate.

Your doing fine, First thing is first, go ahead and drop that humidity that will be fine, it will probably do no good to tell the truth at this point but we can cross our fingers. Once they dip, consider this THREE days before hatching day. Candle them, candle them from the air cell AND the smaller end, what you want to look for is any empty spaces, if you see anything like this:


guess what? you have a STICKY issue, this guy was to bad, and didn't make it. There's NOT a lot we can do once they get that bad.. But you will see this yellow spacing at either end of the shell, This Nightmare of a blob is what kills them inside the shell.

Your egg should LOOK completely DARK, when you candle them, candle them in the closet so that its' completely dark. Now, we can try somethings if they are like that but it will only work three days before hatching day. So when they dip let me know if they look like that pic.. Then we will experiment.. I have tried it, I had someone else try it and so far my experienment is working.. It's NOT set in stone yet because it is something new that we are trying out. But so far mine and this other persons babies have successfully made it out of a sticky shell.

FYI, what kind of ducks???

 

[Lacrystol]

@Lacrystol do you have any more advice do help them hatch or help with sticky ducklings, and do you think there is any chance at survival through the hatch? Thanks!

Chance of survival, used to be 0 to NONE, But with my experiement we can try it and see how things go. So far it's been 2 to Zero, meaning 2 sticky babies have made it out OK and no loses. Again, this is NOT a guarantee. At least not yet. LOL

 

[kromanin]

Thank you so much for your help and advice. I've dropped the humidity completely and will keep candling them until the air cell drops and let you know what they look like when I do. I'll make sure to let you know if there is any spaces that are yellow or not totally dark at the other end on that day.

They are Welsh Harlequins and I am feeling awful that I've made this mistake that will likely end up killing most if not all of them!

Really appreciate your help on this! And will let you know what I see on day 25.