If this is your first time hatching duck eggs then you’re likely anxiously waiting for these eggs to hatch, you may even be counting down the days until your duck’s eggs finally hatch.
On the other hand, if you’ve already hatched duck eggs before, you’ll know that these eggs don’t always hatch on time, this article looks into why this happens and what to do.
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Duck eggs not hatching day 30:
Many ducklings will hatch on schedule, but some will not. Hatching off schedule can be a bad sign, but this isn’t always the case. Here are a few things that may be going on if your duck eggs aren’t hatching on day 30:
Breed of duck:
The duck eggs that you’re incubating may, and likely do, come from a mallard duck. The eggs of mallard ducks have an incubation period of 28 days.
However, if the eggs haven’t hatched by day 30 then you may not be incubating mallard duck eggs at all. The eggs of other breeds of duck may take slightly longer to hatch.
Muscovy ducks for example will take over 35 days to hatch. This long incubation period is normal for this breed of duck.
What to do:
A long incubation period is normal for Muscovy ducks. You don’t have to worry about a long incubation period if you’re incubating eggs from this breed of duck.
If you realize that you’re incubating Muscovy duck eggs you can let the eggs be until day 35 and then check on them to see if they hatch or not.
Slightly late hatching:
Mallard duck eggs need to be incubated for 28 days before the ducklings are ready to hatch out of the shell.
However, this does not mean that all mallard duck eggs will hatch on the 28th day of incubation, some ducklings may take a little longer to develop and finally hatch.
Incubation of these eggs can take from 27 to 31 days, your bird may hatch tomorrow.
What to do:
If you’re worried about the duckling in the egg you can check whether the duckling is actually alive, and has developed. Do this by candling the egg to see inside.
Candling the egg entails shining a flashlight behind the egg so you can see the silhouette of what is happening inside the egg.
If you candle the egg, and see a silhouette of a bird inside, if the bird moves in response to the light, and if the bird makes a sound in response to the light, then the bird is still alive and simply needs more time in the egg until it is ready to hatch.
Bad eggs:
Some eggs may take a little longer to hatch but some eggs simply won’t hatch at all.
If an egg in the wild isn’t hatching there will come a point where the mother duck will roll the egg out of the nest and let it die. She will do this if she realizes that the egg isn’t viable and won’t produce a duckling.
If you’re incubating the eggs yourself, you may have to do the same and get rid of the egg.
If an egg hasn’t hatched by day 31/32 then the egg is unlikely to hatch, that is, if the egg is a mallard duck egg.
An egg may not be viable anymore because it turned rotten during incubation, the egg may have not been fertilized in the first place, or, it may have been placed in an incubator with inadequate humidity levels.
The egg may have cracked sometime during incubation, the egg may have become chilled and died, or, the egg may have become too hot and the embryo inside may have died.
What to do:
If the egg has been incubating for 31/32 days then you may need to candle the egg to see if it is viable or if the egg has become nonviable.
If there are no sounds coming from the egg in response to you candling it, if there is no silhouette of a chick in the egg during candling, and if there is no movement made by the duckling in the egg when you candle the egg, then the bird may not be viable.
You would need to discard of this egg and start fresh.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Duck Swollen Leg, Duckling Died When Hatching, Duck Feathers Look Bad,