Incubators Anonymous

[Jessimom]

Ask away, we can't answer questions that aren't asked. If the question is more appropriate for somewhere else, we will try to direct you to the best place to get an answer. If it is an incubation question there probably isn't a better person to ask than @Sally Sunshine

If it's about dux, don't ask @duluthralphie

GREAT advice!!!!!

 

[NobleDucks]

So..... We just finished up incubating and hatching duck eggs, from our own Welsh Harlequin and Khaki Campbell ducks, in a brand new Hovabator Genesis 1588. I set the temp to 99.5 during incubation and 98.5 at lockdown, the thermometer I put inside confirmed the temp. The humidity was high during the entire incubation period, about the last week I read that my humidity should be lower because it's a dry bulb vs. wet bulb reading (I may be explaining that wrong). But, the humidity was set around 60% for incubation and then 75% + for hatching/lockdown. I had to add a wet sponge to the bator to get the humidity up. I only used the humidity reading on the bator, I do know that for hatching there was more than enough humidity as I had a hard time getting the babies to dry and had to move them to the brooder to dry. We had 5 good eggs at lockdown, they were candled and I could see movement in all of them. When it came time to hatch the pips were pretty straight forward but I could see tan very dry membrane under the shell. I waited a little over 24 hours, and read every article google could find about assisting (as well as watching all the BYC videos), before intervening. I had to intervene on all 5 eggs, all had pipped but none could zip. One duck was lost, I did not intervene in time, it had pipped the shell but not the membrane and got shrink wrapped. The rest are doing well, they were more than ready to get out of their shells and were just waiting for a little help.

My question is.... What went wrong??!! Was the humidity too high for the first 25 days of incubation? I have kids and used this as a fun learning experience, we washed our hands well before handling eggs but we did candle them quite often to see what was going on inside.... should we have worn gloves? Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated. I was really hoping to order some crested duck eggs for incubation but I'm really worried the same thing will happen again and I am very discouraged. I don't want to give up on incubating because it's so much fun and very educational, but I don't want to put more baby ducks through this again!

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this. -Victoria

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Some of Ralphie's chicks that he shipped to me on Monday. Best hatch I have ever gotten from shipped eggs! Speckled Sussex and Cream Legbar.

ADORABLE!

Hi there! I am brand new to these online forums/messages, and brand new to incubating. We just incubated our first batch of duck eggs and I had a major problem. I was wondering if I could ask questions here or if there's another thread I should try...? I don't know what the etiquette is for the groups! I tried starting a thread and received no responses. Thank you, any advice would be helpful. -Victoria

Ask away! We're here to help, usually with fueling the addiction, but with any incubation help too

Ask away, we can't answer questions that aren't asked. If the question is more appropriate for somewhere else, we will try to direct you to the best place to get an answer. If it is an incubation question there probably isn't a better person to ask than @Sally Sunshine If it's about dux, don't ask @duluthralphie

Yeah, X2 on that!

[COLOR=333333]So..... We just finished up incubating and hatching duck eggs, from our own Welsh Harlequin and Khaki Campbell ducks, in a brand new Hovabator Genesis 1588. I set the temp to 99.5 during incubation and 98.5 at lockdown, the thermometer I put inside confirmed the temp. The humidity was high during the entire incubation period, about the last week I read that my humidity should be lower because it's a dry bulb vs. wet bulb reading (I may be explaining that wrong). But, the humidity was set around 60% for incubation and then 75% + for hatching/lockdown. I had to add a wet sponge to the bator to get the humidity up. I only used the humidity reading on the bator, I do know that for hatching there was more than enough humidity as I had a hard time getting the babies to dry and had to move them to the brooder to dry. We had 5 good eggs at lockdown, they were candled and I could see movement in all of them. When it came time to hatch the pips were pretty straight forward but I could see tan very dry membrane under the shell. I waited a little over 24 hours, and read every article google could find about assisting (as well as watching all the BYC videos), before intervening. I had to intervene on all 5 eggs, all had pipped but none could zip. One duck was lost, I did not intervene in time, it had pipped the shell but not the membrane and got shrink wrapped. The rest are doing well, they were more than ready to get out of their shells and were just waiting for a little help. [/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]My question is.... What went wrong??!! Was the humidity too high for the first 25 days of incubation? I have kids and used this as a fun learning experience, we washed our hands well before handling eggs but we did candle them quite often to see what was going on inside.... should we have worn gloves? Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated. I was really hoping to order some crested duck eggs for incubation but I'm really worried the same thing will happen again and I am very discouraged. I don't want to give up on incubating because it's so much fun and very educational, but I don't want to put more baby ducks through this again! [/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this. -Victoria[/COLOR]

It seems like your incubation humidity before lockdown was too high though maybe not write high enough after lockdown and from what I understand, ducks take an extensive amount of time to hatch. BUT, I'm not experienced with hatching ducks at all so I'm sure someone will have MUCH better ideas and suggestions that I can offer. I'll be setting my first duck eggs ever this Friday (muscovies)

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I have a very early poult today...again! They weren't due till Friday so I locked down yesterday. These babies don't like to wait! I'm sure the other 14 will be popping like popcorn tomorrow lol

 

[R2elk]

So..... We just finished up incubating and hatching duck eggs, from our own Welsh Harlequin and Khaki Campbell ducks, in a brand new Hovabator Genesis 1588. I set the temp to 99.5 during incubation and 98.5 at lockdown, the thermometer I put inside confirmed the temp. The humidity was high during the entire incubation period, about the last week I read that my humidity should be lower because it's a dry bulb vs. wet bulb reading (I may be explaining that wrong). But, the humidity was set around 60% for incubation and then 75% + for hatching/lockdown. I had to add a wet sponge to the bator to get the humidity up. I only used the humidity reading on the bator, I do know that for hatching there was more than enough humidity as I had a hard time getting the babies to dry and had to move them to the brooder to dry. We had 5 good eggs at lockdown, they were candled and I could see movement in all of them. When it came time to hatch the pips were pretty straight forward but I could see tan very dry membrane under the shell. I waited a little over 24 hours, and read every article google could find about assisting (as well as watching all the BYC videos), before intervening. I had to intervene on all 5 eggs, all had pipped but none could zip. One duck was lost, I did not intervene in time, it had pipped the shell but not the membrane and got shrink wrapped. The rest are doing well, they were more than ready to get out of their shells and were just waiting for a little help.

My question is.... What went wrong??!! Was the humidity too high for the first 25 days of incubation? I have kids and used this as a fun learning experience, we washed our hands well before handling eggs but we did candle them quite often to see what was going on inside.... should we have worn gloves? Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated. I was really hoping to order some crested duck eggs for incubation but I'm really worried the same thing will happen again and I am very discouraged. I don't want to give up on incubating because it's so much fun and very educational, but I don't want to put more baby ducks through this again!

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this. -Victoria

You may find this thread of value. It appears to have good advice about incubating duck eggs.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/129498/incubating-duck-eggs-for-the-first-time

 

[Finnie]

Some of Ralphie's chicks that he shipped to me on Monday. Best hatch I have ever gotten from shipped eggs! Speckled Sussex and Cream Legbar.

Jealous!

 

[Finnie]

Hi there! I am brand new to these online forums/messages, and brand new to incubating. We just incubated our first batch of duck eggs and I had a major problem. I was wondering if I could ask questions here or if there's another thread I should try...? I don't know what the etiquette is for the groups! I tried starting a thread and received no responses. Thank you, any advice would be helpful. -Victoria

You have TWO new addictions we can enable you with! Hatching eggs and chatting with friends on BYC! Welcome!

And you have been given good advice. That link ought to be real helpful. I don't know about duck incubating, but I know that having too high humidity during incubation can kill chickens and turkeys when it comes time for them to pip and zip.

 

[chicklets81]

My name is Emily, and I have 11 hens and 1 roo. I started last June, when I visited my sisters flock and saw she had what I call a "teddy bear chicken", which I've since learned is a cochin.

I wanted a teddy bear chicken too, and that started my chicken addiction. 1 year later, I have a flock of 11 hens/1 roo, consisting of 4 different breeds, and just purchased 10 new chicks (some of which are a 5th breed), and purchased my own incubator in November to start hatching my own chicks, filled with some of my own eggs plus eggs from a 6th breed.


I'm looking to find a hen that lays an aqua blue egg now. Anybody know what breed that would be?

 

[Jessimom]

Some of Ralphie's chicks that he shipped to me on Monday. Best hatch I have ever gotten from shipped eggs!

Speckled Sussex and Cream Legbar.

Adorable!! Are the little brown ones up in the corner the SS? I hatched a bunch of eggs, some of which are SS. I have some that look just like those brown ones. I don't have any Legbar eggs. So, I'm hoping they are the SS!!!

 

[R2elk]

Adorable!! Are the little brown ones up in the corner the SS? I hatched a bunch of eggs, some of which are SS. I have some that look just like those brown ones. I don't have any Legbar eggs. So, I'm hoping they are the SS!!!

Yes those are the SS. At this age they can be difficult to tell from the Welsummer chicks that I already have.