Best Duck Egg Incubation/Hatching Techniques...?

[kellyn]

I haven't managed to find a nice thread on hatching duck eggs. When I say I'm new at it, I mean I've never seriously tried to hatch out more than one or two eggs before now. I'm running a staggered hatch of almost 50(so far) Pekin and Pekin cross eggs. I read a few times on how it's best to hand turn duck eggs, cool for fifteen minutes and spray with warm water??? My first 14 in the incubator are due June 28th and 29th. I started spraying and cooling the 18th ar 17th, so did I wait a bit too late?

Second batch is June 6th; I have them all together so they all get sprayed.

I'm also a bit worried about when they're supposed to hatch, since I've never had a duck hatch on its' own. In an incubator, anyways. I'll move the ones due to another incubator, but what Humidity should I have it, temperature and on average how long from pipping does it take to hatch? I know chickens take anywhere from 20 minutes to a day to pip and hatch. Button qual but pop out like popcorn, and guineas are slower than moses for hours and when they zip, they High-tail it out of the egg!

Thank-you anyone who can help me, I only have about a week left to get my facts straight. I REEEALLY don't wanna kill these.

 

[mnferalkitty]

This how I hatch my duck eggs
this method works for me and I have great hatch rates.
I fill my water tray when I set them in auto turner
I candle around day 10 or 12 refill water tray
I candle and take out of turner day 24 refill water tray and leave them alone
I have never measured my humidity so I do not know what it is
I read somewhere you should mist duck eggs and the one time I tried that I had miserable hatch rate so I have never done it again.
One thing that threw me for loop when I first started hatching duck eggs is they pip then make a hole in egg and work on that hole to zip and sometimes it can take 2-3 days!!