We are getting piles of duck eggs so I am tempted to start hatching, although I have been running Calls with our Spots and I don't want to take a chance on crossing breeds. The proven ones are bonded to their own breed for breeding but the younger ones raised together may not be bonded with their own breed for breeding yet.
Last season was the first time I raised the Call and the Spotted ducklings together and it is also my last. They have been separated for at least a week now (making more noise than usual as a result) and this year I am getting rid of all the Calls so we only have one duck breed to separate by color.
We usually use our first duck eggs after the break to make baked goods and then start hatching once Girl Scout cookie sales are over but my daughter decided not to sell cookies this year and sell chocolates for her choir trip instead.
I could hatch the eggs in my tried and true Little Giant incubators but they fill up fast so we built a cabinet incubator from an oak cabinet that needs some test hatches to get the temperature and humidity just right. I had planned to use chicken eggs to test it, either our own or some cheap ones, but if we are going to eat the duck eggs anyway I suppose we could use them as a test batch while hatching some in a Little Giant incubator as a test group.
I usually hatch my ducklings using still air and my chicks using forced air due to the differences in humidity but I actually got a humidifier to use in the cabinet incubator to force the air and humidity at the same time. It has settings for the humidity level but I have no idea how accurate it will be between the setting and reading throughout the cabinet. I plan to keep it in the larger section of the cabinet to make it a hatcher while incubating in drawers in the other side of the cabinet. I can add an extra fan if the air does not circulate the heat and humidity enough but for now the trick is plugging in everything and measuring the temperature and humidity in various areas simultaneously.
The thermometers that come with the styrofoam incubators are worthless so I use a probe thermometer intended to take indoor and outdoor temperature readings. I don't know how accurate it is but I try to get all my incubators to read the same with the thermometer and I also go by how well my hatches are on schedule with their expected hatch date. I have a scale to weigh the eggs but I have not done that yet since they hatch so well without monitoring their progress.
Once I have an incubator set up and it is incubating eggs effectively, I don't touch the controls and I don't check the temperature anymore. I just plug it in, put eggs in it, and move them to a hatching incubator for hatching, perhaps candling a few times during the process to clear out clear eggs or quitters to make room for more eggs. I move the eggs forward to add new eggs behind them so the incubators run non-stop unless I need to clean them due to an egg hatching early (if it was under a hen and started when we collected the clutch) or an egg oozing because it cracked or was no good. By hatching in a separate hatcher I contain the hatching mess and only have that one incubator to clean after hatching and getting the chicks started before moving them to a brooder.
I can use the single thermometer I have to go back and forth to check the temperature of the cabinet incubator in various areas but it would be nice to have multiple probe type thermometers to check the different areas for incubating and hatching (hatching needs to be slightly cooler and a bit more humid) simultaniously. One of the biggest mistakes people make when incubating is to keep making adjustments when there are slight fluctuations instead of just making sure the eggs stay in the correct temperature range because making too many adjustments causes even bigger fluctuations. The eggs do okay if there are no big spikes or dips in the room temperature (day to night or drafts) and if I leave the controls alone the thermostat will adjust things for me gradually.
Does anyone have an idea for inexpensive and yet reliable probe thermometers? I would love to measure the humidity level at the same time as well but I have yet to find an accurate way to check inside humidity from the outside of an incubator. I have used a reptile hygrometer on the wire floor of the styrofoam incubator that can sometimes be seen from the viewing windows, until the chicks or ducklings sit on it or move it around, but they don't last long and they are not very accurate. I have kept my hatching environment a bit dryer than recommended because the humidity goes up once the first ones are out of the shell and it can become too humid too easily. My hope is that the percentage settings on the humidifier will keep the humidity more consistent but as long as the birds don't drown or shrink wrap during hatching the exact percentage is not as critical.
Ideally I want something that measures temperature and humidity together using a probe that has a long line, such as the indoor/outdoor thermometer I use now. Mine even has a warning if the temperature gets too high so that is a nice feature as well. I know commercial cabinet incubators have the ability to set and monitor with controls on the outside so I want something for my home built cabinet that will give me successful hatches at a fraction of the cost (plus ours looks like a beautiful oak cabinet and not an incubator).
I am going to check out the sections on incubator building for ideas but this group has experienced hatchers so I thought I would get suggestions from people in the area who hatch in the same weather conditions. I did get some temperature spikes in my incubators last summer during a longer than usual heat spell so I am hoping the oak will be better insulating and the larger space will be easier to cool down compared to the small styrofoam incubators.
Maybe someone will even have eggs they are willing to sacrifice for a test hatch. I often boil and cook my clear eggs to feed to the chickens so they don't go to waste but I hate to experiment on my valuable eggs, although we will have far too many eggs to hatch until I do a spring flock reduction.
Last season was the first time I raised the Call and the Spotted ducklings together and it is also my last. They have been separated for at least a week now (making more noise than usual as a result) and this year I am getting rid of all the Calls so we only have one duck breed to separate by color.
We usually use our first duck eggs after the break to make baked goods and then start hatching once Girl Scout cookie sales are over but my daughter decided not to sell cookies this year and sell chocolates for her choir trip instead.
I could hatch the eggs in my tried and true Little Giant incubators but they fill up fast so we built a cabinet incubator from an oak cabinet that needs some test hatches to get the temperature and humidity just right. I had planned to use chicken eggs to test it, either our own or some cheap ones, but if we are going to eat the duck eggs anyway I suppose we could use them as a test batch while hatching some in a Little Giant incubator as a test group.
I usually hatch my ducklings using still air and my chicks using forced air due to the differences in humidity but I actually got a humidifier to use in the cabinet incubator to force the air and humidity at the same time. It has settings for the humidity level but I have no idea how accurate it will be between the setting and reading throughout the cabinet. I plan to keep it in the larger section of the cabinet to make it a hatcher while incubating in drawers in the other side of the cabinet. I can add an extra fan if the air does not circulate the heat and humidity enough but for now the trick is plugging in everything and measuring the temperature and humidity in various areas simultaneously.
The thermometers that come with the styrofoam incubators are worthless so I use a probe thermometer intended to take indoor and outdoor temperature readings. I don't know how accurate it is but I try to get all my incubators to read the same with the thermometer and I also go by how well my hatches are on schedule with their expected hatch date. I have a scale to weigh the eggs but I have not done that yet since they hatch so well without monitoring their progress.
Once I have an incubator set up and it is incubating eggs effectively, I don't touch the controls and I don't check the temperature anymore. I just plug it in, put eggs in it, and move them to a hatching incubator for hatching, perhaps candling a few times during the process to clear out clear eggs or quitters to make room for more eggs. I move the eggs forward to add new eggs behind them so the incubators run non-stop unless I need to clean them due to an egg hatching early (if it was under a hen and started when we collected the clutch) or an egg oozing because it cracked or was no good. By hatching in a separate hatcher I contain the hatching mess and only have that one incubator to clean after hatching and getting the chicks started before moving them to a brooder.
I can use the single thermometer I have to go back and forth to check the temperature of the cabinet incubator in various areas but it would be nice to have multiple probe type thermometers to check the different areas for incubating and hatching (hatching needs to be slightly cooler and a bit more humid) simultaniously. One of the biggest mistakes people make when incubating is to keep making adjustments when there are slight fluctuations instead of just making sure the eggs stay in the correct temperature range because making too many adjustments causes even bigger fluctuations. The eggs do okay if there are no big spikes or dips in the room temperature (day to night or drafts) and if I leave the controls alone the thermostat will adjust things for me gradually.
Does anyone have an idea for inexpensive and yet reliable probe thermometers? I would love to measure the humidity level at the same time as well but I have yet to find an accurate way to check inside humidity from the outside of an incubator. I have used a reptile hygrometer on the wire floor of the styrofoam incubator that can sometimes be seen from the viewing windows, until the chicks or ducklings sit on it or move it around, but they don't last long and they are not very accurate. I have kept my hatching environment a bit dryer than recommended because the humidity goes up once the first ones are out of the shell and it can become too humid too easily. My hope is that the percentage settings on the humidifier will keep the humidity more consistent but as long as the birds don't drown or shrink wrap during hatching the exact percentage is not as critical.
Ideally I want something that measures temperature and humidity together using a probe that has a long line, such as the indoor/outdoor thermometer I use now. Mine even has a warning if the temperature gets too high so that is a nice feature as well. I know commercial cabinet incubators have the ability to set and monitor with controls on the outside so I want something for my home built cabinet that will give me successful hatches at a fraction of the cost (plus ours looks like a beautiful oak cabinet and not an incubator).
I am going to check out the sections on incubator building for ideas but this group has experienced hatchers so I thought I would get suggestions from people in the area who hatch in the same weather conditions. I did get some temperature spikes in my incubators last summer during a longer than usual heat spell so I am hoping the oak will be better insulating and the larger space will be easier to cool down compared to the small styrofoam incubators.
Maybe someone will even have eggs they are willing to sacrifice for a test hatch. I often boil and cook my clear eggs to feed to the chickens so they don't go to waste but I hate to experiment on my valuable eggs, although we will have far too many eggs to hatch until I do a spring flock reduction.
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