Newb mistakes, advice greatly appreciated!

[hellothere]

Hi all,
We are hatching for the first time using the Brinsea Mini Eco manual incubator. We started off with ten eggs. Our first mistake was putting in two duck eggs and eight chicken eggs at the same time. Unfortunately, most of the eggs were duds. Nothing formed in six of the chicken eggs, and one of the duck eggs died early on. We got these eggs from someone else, so not sure if the six that never formed were just not fertilised or what. Our temp. has been a steady 37.5 C.

So now we have two chicks and a duckling, on day 12. We realised after a couple of days of them being in the incubator, we should have waited a week before putting in the duck eggs since they (well we are down to one now) won't hatch until 28 days and we can't turn it during lockdown. Any advice for making sure my little duck will make it? I checked just now and it is super active in the egg. I'm already attached! What problems could be caused to it or the chicks? During lockdown, I could gently tilt the incubator to turn him. Is it bad if the chicken eggs get turned during lockdown? Or would the duck be ok not being turned for 24 hours?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The duck egg will be fine not turned. In reality, with chickens anyway, you don't need to turn anymore after two weeks. It's just continued to keep things simple. Turn eggs and low humidity for 18 days then up humidity and take eggs out of turner. See? That's darn simple sounding. With ducks being a week longer to develop I'd keep turning it right up to your chicken's hatching then stop.

 

[hellothere]

Thanks! Now another worry, since I removed the eight duds this evening, the temp in the incubator has dropped half a degree to about 37 C! Should I tamper with it to try and bring it back up? The brinsea mini eco is awkward to adjust.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I imagine the temp came back up by morning all on it's own. With thermal mass of eggs they don't suffer the drastic temp swings the air in an incubator does. Thermometers are measuring air temp, eggs themselves change temp very slowly. Any adjustments to thermostat should be minute and wait a long time to determine it's effect. People get panicky and play with the thermostat too much or don't wait for effect and adjust more...leads to far too hot by mornings.

 

[hellothere]

Day 21 starts in a couple of hours, and there hasn't been any signs of movement since day 18 Day 18 they were moving quite a bit, but both have stopped now. Is that normal? I feel like at this stage they should be moving quite a lot, starting to work on hatching.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Day 21 starts in a couple of hours, and there hasn't been any signs of movement since day 18 Day 18 they were moving quite a bit, but both have stopped now. Is that normal? I feel like at this stage they should be moving quite a lot, starting to work on hatching.

What was your humidity over the period of incubation?

 

[hellothere]

What was your humidity over the period of incubation?

I don't know, we use the brinsea mini eco and don't have anything to measure humidity. We just follow what the manual says, which is two days before hatching fill both sides of the well with water.

Good news though, woke up this morning to two pipped eggs! I think one zipped as well, but it's on the side of the egg facing down. The pip is near the bottom but still facing out so he can breath. Should we turn it so the pip is facing up? Or can it still hatch like that. Still no sign of movement, but they must be moving at some stage when we aren't looking.

 

[hellothere]

One made it safely into the World!

Ten hours after pipping, no progress since in the other one. Is that normal?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

One made it safely into the World!

Ten hours after pipping, no progress since in the other one. Is that normal?

Yup. Many don't progress for 24 hours.