Call Ducks Finally Hatched

[Kaessa]

He's eating. Everything

SQUEEEE what a cute little fuzzbutt!

 

[clousert]

@clousert What time of year do yours typically set? She seems so concerned with her eggs though, that's what leads me to think she's gathering a clutch to hatch. Every morning when she has laid me another, it is always with all her others in her little nesting box. I'll see her peep into their coop to check on them regularly and she cleans them every day as well.

Mine usually set mid to late summer. All of my girls (except a couple of the new girls) lay in the same nest box. When 1 wants to set she starts chasing the others away from the nest and I have to add another nest on the other side of their coop. You could always use a pencil to mark each egg with the date when she lays it so you know which are the oldest and need to go into the incubator before it's too late. Eggs start losing viability once they're around 7 days old. Some will go a little longer some won't. Of the 6 hens I had last year that were old enough, only 2 went broody and hatched babies. The others seemed to have no interest. I have 13 hens this year so we'll see what happens.

 

[Lacrystol]

Yes. It is a homemade freezerbator with auto everything and wondered what humidity to set it to... It can hold around 600 call ducks eggs!!!

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Your best bet is to put a couple in for now to do a test run...

 

[Lacrystol]

She may not set right now. My calls usually only go broody and set once a year. I have a few that never have. They still lay just about every day but have no interest in hatching them.

Agree I have one that is sitting right while the others are not, you. Can't make them or put them into broody mood.

 

[Amykins]

Hrm. I have a dilemma. Even totally dry, the humidity in the bator is staying around 40%. Even with the heater on in the room, the external humidity is 55%! I could move the bator closer to where the baseboard is where the air's much much drier, but even for a forced-air automatic bator I don't want to risk overheating. What should I do, leave it where it is (which seems like the best bet to me, but I'm not sure so that's why I'm asking) or move it closer to the heater and see if the fan motor can compensate for the increased room temp?

 

[Lacrystol]

Hrm. I have a dilemma. Even totally dry, the humidity in the bator is staying around 40%. Even with the heater on in the room, the external humidity is 55%! I could move the bator closer to where the baseboard is where the air's much much drier, but even for a forced-air automatic bator I don't want to risk overheating. What should I do, leave it where it is (which seems like the best bet to me, but I'm not sure so that's why I'm asking) or move it closer to the heater and see if the fan motor can compensate for the increased room temp?

I would just leave it, your already in the process, I would make changes now you could end up do more damage then good..

 

[Amykins]

I would just leave it, your already in the process, I would make changes now you could end up do more damage then good..

Yeah, you have a point. But as a big believer of dry incubating 40% still seems pretty high! Not sure how to make it any lower, honestly. There's no water in the bator at all!

 

[Lacrystol]

40% isn't bad, I only suggest 20% because he has had a sticky issue for quite sometime now and in order to figure out what is causing the problem is to start with lowering the humidity level. If he lows that humidty level and still has a sticky issue then he needs to recalibrate the temp, etc, he really needs to start somewhere and figure out what is causing his sticky issue and have a better hatching rate..

 

[Julie Birb]

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that face + body + webbed feeties = cute fuzzer.

 

[Amykins]

40% isn't bad, I only suggest 20% because he has had a sticky issue for quite sometime now and in order to figure out what is causing the problem is to start with lowering the humidity level. If he lows that humidty level and still has a sticky issue then he needs to recalibrate the temp, etc, he really needs to start somewhere and figure out what is causing his sticky issue and have a better hatching rate..

35% is my goal; last year the humidity fluctuated between 40-50% depending on the weather and as you remember I did have a successful hatch, but still had some issues with wet, swollen belly buttons. So this year I wanted to play it safe. But apparently the Northwest barometric pressure and moisture fronts have other ideas!

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that face + body + webbed feeties = cute fuzzer.

inorite?