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HUZZ69
Lv 5
HUZZ69 asked in PetsBirds · 7 years ago

Will overdue duck eggs hatch?

A month ago I received 22 fertile duck eggs purchased from ebay (12 Swedish and 10 Welsh Harlequins). I immediately placed them in an incubator with temperature 99.5 degrees and humidity 60%. I used an automatic egg turner until day 25. I had 3 hatch as scheduled on day 28. 1 hatched on day 29. I helped 2 hatch today (day 30) and they are all doing fine.

6 ducklings out of 22 fertile eggs seems like a very low hatch rate.

I also raise chickens, hens only. I know you can float test infertile eggs to check for freshness. Bad eggs will float, fresh eggs will sink. I have read online you can test overdue duck eggs by a float test and the results are reversed, viable fertile eggs float and bad, dead, or dud eggs sink. I candled all the unhatched eggs and some are dark some are clear. Some clear eggs floated and some clear eggs sank. Also some dark / full looking eggs floated and others sank.

What are the odds some of the remaing eggs may still hatch? I am very doubtful, but I will incubate them for a few more days to see what happens.

3 Answers

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  • HUZZ69
    Lv 5
    7 years ago

    I have candled the eggs, some are developed and some are not. I have tested the eggs in water and separated the ones that float and ones that sink. The ones that floated, I put in water again to identify any movement from inside the egg. No movement detected. I a concluding the remaining eggs do not contain any life. I will incubate all eggs a few more days just in case...

  • Anonymous
    7 years ago

    Try to do a search on Google, maybe that will work out

  • 7 years ago

    Candel them. Hold a flashlight under the egg in a totally dark room. By looking inside of the egg you can see how much they have grown so far and how much more time they need yourself. I don't know anything bout suck eggs buy I breed parakeets and doves.

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