Any secrets to duck eggs?

[bigdog]

I teach middle school and hatch duck eggs every year as a school project but my hatch rate is pretty poor. I get about 20-25% that successfully hatch and about another 30-40% partially developed embryos that appear to stop at various stages. Does anyone have any "tips"? Thanks for any and all ideas.

 

[kstaven]

Make sure they are clean eggs. Thinner shells allow for more bacteria transfer into the egg.

Humidity needs to be higher than chicken eggs.

Duck eggs often take longer than the stated 28 days to hatch for many.

I run my incubator a full degree higher when doing duck eggs and my hatch rate has been better for it.

What incubator? Auto turner? Humidity? Temp? All this would help us help you.

 

[bigdog]

I had used a Hovabator with the auto turner, fan and a manual thermostat set to 99.5 or as close as I could get it. The new incubator I just bought has the preset thermostat with a fan and autoturner. I am going to get a humistat. I had heard that you should mist the eggs every day with warm water to increase humidity but then other sources say that allows bacteria to get in.

 

[kstaven]

When I was still using the hova's I did mist eggs and they never suffered for it.

 

[jab91864]

i hatched runner duck eggs in an aquarium last year. misted them with warm water every time i turned them.

best of luck

julie