What am I doing wrong?

[barlracer]

Hi everyone. Been hatching eggs for years and had good luck. The past 2 years, I have had issues hatching out the waterfowl. Always been in the same incubator as all my other eggs, and been good. Chickens, quail, guineas, all hatch well. Waterfowl all seem to go right to the end and not pip. I have tried lower humidity this year, higher humidity, moving eggs at last couple days or sign of first pip to higher humidity hatcher. Nothing seems to help. Have large redwood incubator, temp 99-100, humididty runs around 40%. Keep all eggs in there until due to hatch. All chicken and quail eggs stay in there to hatch. I have left duck and goose in there to hatch as well, and low hatches. (just had 3 pilgrim goslings hatch out of 18 eggs, all of which were fertile and developed well). Have also moved the waterfowl to a hatcher, with humidity running between 60-65% and temp 98-99, seems to be no change. Have put a wet sponge in there next to the eggs to help and still no difference. Any Ideas?

Thanks

 

[barlracer]

Just curious if anyone had any ideas to try or advice?

 

[Sweetlilbaby]

I've never had success hatching ducks or waterfowl. But a friend of mine hatches them all the time with great success. She keeps her incubator at 65% for the first part of incubation, then the last 3 days she ups it to 80% Maybe waterfowl need the higher humidity?

Sorry for the lack of success. maybe try hatching fewer eggs at a time until you start getting better hatch rates.

 

[SallysCrazyFarm]

I hatch mostly waterfowl. You seem to be doing all the right things. I keep my humidity around 35-40% during incubation and at 3 days before hatch is due, I slowly raise the humidity. Once I hear peeping or confirm internal pip by candling, that's when I add more sponges, top of the water and go into lockdown. From my experience, I've noticed they need some encouragement sometimes. I'll talk or peep at them or jiggle them a little. Once the first duckling/gosling hatches, I keep them in the incubator and let them knock the other eggs around. I actually think this encourages the rest of the hatchlings to get moving (after they've rested and expanded their lungs). Maybe it's nature's way to have them hatch pretty close together so they aren't any left behind. And of course, not all eggs that are fully developed do end up hatching. There's always some of those. I've watched mother ducks continue turning their eggs even when they have pipped. They are not kept still like when people do during lockdown with artificial incubation. You've got to try to imitate nature as best as possible. That's just from my experience. I could be totally wrong. Just what I've observed over 15 years of hatching waterfowl.

 

[SallysCrazyFarm]

I've noticed if I removed hatched ducklings/goslings too soon, the rest of the unhatched ducklings/goslings take a lot longer to hatch vs leaving them all in there together. They seem to stimulate each other.