Late Feburary-Early March 2016 Hatch-A-Long!

[NTBugtraq]

My hatch is now complete. These were hatched over the last 24 hours and are on their way to the brooder.



6 chicks pipped but then died in the bator. I opened it way to many times.



66 hatched out of the 72 fertile eggs, giving me a 91.67% hatch rate.

So far no brooder deaths. I had to tape the legs of 3 of the bunch above, and there are 5 still in the bator drying out. Hopefully their legs are stronger.

Next setting 2/23...

 

[becca777]

I don't like dramatic changes inside the bator, but the only way you are going to make the air sack grow is to drop humidity, or wait. So, drop the humidity by 5% a day for 3 days (and no more), see if it makes a difference.

I dropped my humidity from 40% to 35% and then today I have it between 25%-30%. I checked the air cells this afternoon and they all seem to be growing. Thank you so much for the advice. Its such a huge relief that I was able to fix that.

 

[drumgerry]

Mine are in lockdown for a Wed/Thurs hatch! Tough getting the humidity up where it needs to be in my Octagon 20 at this time of year but managed to get it over 60% using some cloths draped over the sides of the water channels to create a bit more surface area.

 

[Gone-Quackers]

Just 11 days to go before hatch day! Yesterday I had to adjust my temperature by just over 1 F as the eggs are already emitting their own heat. I used to add water to the humidity trays every 3 days but now suddenly I have to add more water every 1 1/2 days. I'm watching my 10 eggs closely.

I will be doing a staggered hatch (adding 30 plus eggs for easter hatch-a-long later in the week) and have to figure out how to turn a styrofoam cooler into a hatch chamber. Has anyone else done this? If so how did you maintain appropriate humidity? Duck eggs need 65% humidity for hatching. I will be using a heat lamp for the heat source and will have everything up and running a few days before moving eggs there at lockdown. I do have 2 styrofoam coolers, 1 much larger than the other. How the heck do you maintain humidity while letting the heat lamp do its job?

My ideas so far are:
Cut grooves into bottom of cooler to hold water, put eggs in, cover top of cooler with saran wrap, and put heat lamp at the right distance to get appropriate hatching temperature. This is my first hatch in many, many years and I really want it to go well.

 

[NTBugtraq]

I dropped my humidity from 40% to 35% and then today I have it between 25%-30%. I checked the air cells this afternoon and they all seem to be growing. Thank you so much for the advice. Its such a huge relief that I was able to fix that.

Be sure to start raising the RH% back up before the air cell gets too big. That going to be kind of a guess, but I would start raising it tomorrow.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Mine are in lockdown for a Wed/Thurs hatch! Tough getting the humidity up where it needs to be in my Octagon 20 at this time of year but managed to get it over 60% using some cloths draped over the sides of the water channels to create a bit more surface area.

You could try using a spritzer.

 

[drumgerry]

You mean on to the eggs themselves?

The incubator is almost full or I would use an additional container of water in the basket beside the eggs. As it is the cloths draped over the water channels are working ok - just need to keep the water channels full as I'm evaporating water quite quickly by this method

 

[mallory2013]

Hey all! Im glad to see everyone has been having good luck so far

. My hatch is on Thursday! Out of the 6 eggs that I started with I only have to get rid of one due to it being infertile. I have 5 eggs now with very good growth. Today is day 18 and I just went into lockdown. However I heard chirping and lo and behold I have an internal pip! I've never had that happen before on day 18! I guess I'll have to see what happens

 

[KeyFlock]

Hey all! Im glad to see everyone has been having good luck so far

. My hatch is on Thursday! Out of the 6 eggs that I started with I only have to get rid of one due to it being infertile. I have 5 eggs now with very good growth. Today is day 18 and I just went into lockdown. However I heard chirping and lo and behold I have an internal pip! I've never had that happen before on day 18! I guess I'll have to see what happens

Yay! I'm only on day 6, but tomorrow I get to do the first candling!! I hope all is doing well, the only problem would be infertility. My incubator has been working perfectly so far!

 

[Purpletie3]

I want opinions or facts from fellow hatchers... Duck egg specific. I collected a group of eggs this morning. I had to rinse them under water, they were nasty. That being said, they have the highest chances of fertility being I culled all but 4 males yesterday. (I needed to cut out all second generation inbreeding). One egg specifically though, I am positive of mom and dad, I'm hoping to hatch. Do I set immediately or let them rest for 24 hour first??

I am not a duck hatcher..but, i saw you didn't have any answers.I would leave them sit to acclimate to room temp or if there is a chance their air cells were damaged. Other than that I don't really think it matters. Best of luck to you with your hatch!