Advice for incubating/hatching eggs at varying stages of development in the same incubator.

[rosiesgirls]

My neighbor gave me 8 Muscovy eggs that were under a broody duck, not sure how long she'd been setting on them; it seemed they were at day 12-14. At this point, several of them look like they may be close to lockdown. In the meantime, another neighbor gave me 4 newly-laid call duck eggs which are in the same incubator. They are just beginning to show veins when candled; obviously, they have quite a ways to go yet.

I'm unsure what I should do regarding humidity and placing the eggs on their sides when they are approaching lockdown. How do I meet the needs of both stages of development in the same incubator?

I should mention I have never hatched eggs before and am using a Little Giant incubator with an auto-turner. I have a good hygrometer/thermometer inside. I seem to notice quite a variation in temp, depending on the location, inside the incubator. I have been rotating the eggs on their axis, and changing their location in the rack each time, to try to combat any adverse effects of that.

Any advice is welcome. Thanks, in advance.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It sounds like your model of LG incubator is a still air, not a forced air. Warm air rises. In a still air that makes where vertically you take the temperature very important. That's probably why you get different readings depending on where you are in there, elevation. The recommended temperature in a still air is i01.5 F taken at the top of the eggs.

I don't do duck eggs and I'm too lazy this morning to go confirm it, but I believe Muscovy eggs take five weeks to hatch, while Call eggs take four.

You have what we call a staggered hatch. That can be stressful even if you have some experience. You have different issues in a staggered hatch. One is turning. Especially early in incubation turning is very important. Turning helps the body parts form in the right spots and helps keep the yolk or developing embryo from touching the inside of that porous egg where it can get stuck. In chickens by two weeks the body parts have formed. The membrane between the embryo and the shell has developed enough to stop the developing embryo for getting stuck to the shell. I don't know what that timing is for duck eggs. The later you go in incubation the less important turning is. It does not hurt but it is not as important.

Another issue is humidity. You want the egg to lose a certain amount of moisture during the total incubation so the air cell is the right size. There is a reasonable window as to the size of that air cell but you need to be reasonably close. But once an egg pips if the humidity is too low that membrane that protects the embryo from getting stuck to the inside of the shell can dry out and shrink around the embryo, keeping it from moving enough to hatch.

Another issue is that when they hatch, they start pooping. And they are still wet with goop from the hatch. While crawling around they can slime the other eggs. If they are all going to hatch in a couple of days this is no big deal. But in a staggered hatch that poop and slime can cause bacteria to set up. That bacteria can possibly get inside the late eggs and kill the embryo, but it will soon cause the incubator to stink to high heaven. Do you see why I don't like staggered hatches?

You are where you are and have to deal with what you have. Some people do staggered hatches on a regular basis. The easy way to handle this is to have a second incubator that is used only as a hatcher. When the eggs are ready for lockdown, move them to the hatcher. That way you can start eggs once a week and continuously hatch. Is it worth buying or borrowing a second incubator?

A complicating factor is that you don't know the stage of those Muscovy eggs. When do you stop turning them and when do they need to go into lockdown? My only suggestion to that is to candle them and make your best guess. You should be able to find examples on Google that show you what to look for. Probably when all you can see is a dark mass filling the bottom of the egg and the air cell on top you are good to go.

I don't know what humidity for you to use for ducks. There are probably different suggestions out there. I'd run it in the lower portions of the acceptable range until I was ready for lockdown to maximize moisture loss, then bump it up for hatch.

I don't know what your turner looks like. Can you remove certain rows? One way to keep the eggs from getting slimed if you can do it in your incubator is to put a mesh crate over the first eggs to hatch. Some people use those plastic mesh baskets some fruit comes in. You can fashion one out of hardware cloth. Then clean the incubator after the first ones hatch. You can wrap the Call eggs in a warm moist towel (not hot enough to cook them). That should give you plenty of time to clean out the incubator and prepare for the next hatch.

You are not in a good position but it does not have to be a disaster. Good luck!

 

[rosiesgirls]

Thank you for such a detailed reply! You did a great job of outlining all of my concerns. The incubator is a forced air, not still air, and the temp variations have to do with the eggs' location on the grid of the turner, not the elevation on the egg. As I mentioned, though, I move the eggs around the grid each time I turn them so they each take a turn at the warmer/colder spots. That seems to be the best I can do with this incubator.

I am borrowing the incubator and don't anticipate hatching more eggs, so I'm not interested in buying another one (and don't know anyone else who has one). I also can't take rows out of the turner, but I MIGHT be able to set a container on top of part of it so I can lay down the eggs that are closer to hatching. Worth a shot! Thanks for that idea.

I plan to move the babies to a small, clear tote with a heat lamp over it when they hatch so I think I can avoid having them soil the incubator too much. Do you think I could set that up to work as a still air incubator? If so, I could move the eggs into that for lockdown/hatch...just not sure if it would work. Maybe if I was able to insulate it? I'd hate to do anything to harm the babies at that late stage, though.

Interested to hear what others think of that idea...

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Duck eggs normally take 28 days to hatch but that really means about 30 days before all the viable eggs hatch out and the duckling dry off, and rest up post hatching.

 

[rosiesgirls]

Actually, Muscovies take 35-37 days and Calls take 28-30, but since they were set so far apart, that wouldn't make a difference to my situation, anyway. As I mentioned, the Muscovies are getting close to hatching and the Calls are just starting out which creates an issue with regard to turning and humidity. I've placed the one egg that is completely dark into a small container on top of the rails so it won't turn any more and am giving it a very light misting a couple of times a day. Not very scientific, but it seems to be the best I can do, given my situation.

I'm still curious if anyone thinks I can put the eggs in lockdown in a small tote with a heat lamp. Then I could leave them undisturbed and raise the humidity in there, while leaving the incubator at a lower level.