Help Please

[n8ivetxn]

Well that's great! At least we know that it's possible for (at least) some of them to breath and not drown in fluids....

How many do you have left to hatch?

 

[kdbaker42]

Thank you...Just the one but have 7 chicken eggs that r day 21 today

 

[n8ivetxn]

Awesome!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Do you mist your eggs with warm water during incubation (not during lockdown, of course)? Low humidity until lockdown combined with cooling and misting helped me improve my hatch rates.

 

[n8ivetxn]

I don't mist...actually, I've never heard of it (but, lots of things I haven't heard of, LOL!) ......no, I just set a small well with a sponge and keep the numbers from 27-35% until day 18 and then add another well/sponge to get it up to 65-70.

How often do you mist? Doesn't that make the humidity jump up in the bator? How do you cool?

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I don't mist...actually, I've never heard of it (but, lots of things I haven't heard of, LOL!) ......no, I just set a small well with a sponge and keep the numbers from 27-35% until day 18 and then add another well/sponge to get it up to 65-70.

How often do you mist? Doesn't that make the humidity jump up in the bator? How do you cool?

I started misting the eggs after I read that it can improve Muscovy egg hatch rates, and use a lot of the info from this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/incubating-and-hatching-muscovy-eggs. Basically, you mist the eggs with warm water from a spray bottle, in conjunction with cooling (taking the top of the incubator off for a specific period of time, varies depending on how long the eggs have been incubating). While my incubator has an autoturner and cooling function, I get the best results hand-turning (3xday) and manually cooling/misting. I've been able to watch my Muscovy broodies dampen and cool their eggs in their nests this summer - the misting/cooling method mimics natural incubation. It does temporarily boost humidity in the incubator, but the autocooling feature does the same thing and it doesn't seem to have an adverse impact on hatch rate. It may also seem counterintuitive to take the top of the incubator off during cooling, but the broody will leave her eggs for 30+ minutes at times, so it's actually perfectly fine to do it briefly to cool the eggs (but you have to learn to ignore the little voice in your head saying "don't open the incubator!"

).

 

[n8ivetxn]

Wow, that's interesting, I'll definitely read up on that... I've thought about getting a few ducks, likely Muscovies. There is a marsh area right on my neighbor's property, so I'm afraid any ducks I got would just migrate over there and stay, LOL! They wouldn't last long out there with all the predators.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Wow, that's interesting, I'll definitely read up on that... I've thought about getting a few ducks, likely Muscovies. There is a marsh area right on my neighbor's property, so I'm afraid any ducks I got would just migrate over there and stay, LOL!  They wouldn't last long out there with all the predators.

Muscovies are great, and addictive - I hatched a couple of sets and let a couple of broodies hatch a few this year and it's like a "ducksplosion" happened! LOL They're excellent foragers, smart, and have a lot of personality. I clip one wing on mine because they can fly really well and like to roost up high. They'd be happy as clams in your climate, too and probably eat every slug in sight!

 

[n8ivetxn]

LOL!

Yes a lot of people out here have them, I'd love to have some slug eaters! We have a large property, so I don't mind them flying as long as they come back! LOL...I've got some really tall trees too, boy they would be happy as clams

 

[kdbaker42]

Yes I misted from day 10 to day 25 cooled them down and misted then back to incubator. Humidity at lock down was 55 then lock down 80. I lost one baby duck and the other is out but not looking good.her down feathers are all matted and hard. Tried wiping her down with warm damp cloth but didn't help.i read u can bath in Luke warm water and brush her with soft toothbrush brush under a heat light will this help