Calls & Humidity

[lizardboy55]

Hello All,

I'm collecting eggs from my call duck to start hatching. I have an incubator but I was wondering how many cups of water I should put in it to keep the humidity around 65% like they say to do and how many cups for 90% for hatching. Also should I put them threw a cooling period after the first week? Any help and/or advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank You!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hello All,

I'm collecting eggs from my call duck to start hatching. I have an incubator but I was wondering how many cups of water I should put in it to keep the humidity around 65% like they say to do and how many cups for 90% for hatching. Also should I put them threw a cooling period after the first week? Any help and/or advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank You!

First, I wouldn't run that high. Many people that hatch ducks run low humidity like they do for chickens. Second. There is no way for anyone to tell you how much water to put in to hit a certain percentage. That is going to depend on what your relative humidity is to begin with.

I'm going to tag a couple hatchers I know that can help with call hatching.

@WVduckchick. @RavynFallen @Pyxis

 

[WVduckchick]

For what its worth, I've only hatched them once, ran about 30% humidity with no water whatsoever, hand turned daily, at least 3 times a day, eggs laying down. Around day 18, I didn't think air cells were big enough, so I misted the eggs 3 or 4 times over the next few days, and they looked much better by lockdown day. Over half externally pipped and hatched, all assisted hatches, healthy beautiful ducklings. Some internally pipped but didn't hatch. Some never internally pipped and died sometime within the last 2 days. I feel confident in saying adding any water or running above 30% would have been disastrous.

 

[Pyxis]

I agree, I never do high humidity for my duck hatches. I'm doing my first Call hatch right now and I'm running the humidity at 30%. I definitely wouldn't do higher than that.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

For what its worth, I've only hatched them once, ran about 30% humidity with no water whatsoever, hand turned daily, at least 3 times a day, eggs laying down. Around day 18, I didn't think air cells were big enough, so I misted the eggs 3 or 4 times over the next few days, and they looked much better by lockdown day. Over half externally pipped and hatched, all assisted hatches, healthy beautiful ducklings. Some internally pipped but didn't hatch. Some never internally pipped and died sometime within the last 2 days. I feel confident in saying adding any water or running above 30% would have been disastrous.

Yours were shipped weren't they?

 

[lizardboy55]

For what its worth, I've only hatched them once, ran about 30% humidity with no water whatsoever, hand turned daily, at least 3 times a day, eggs laying down. Around day 18, I didn't think air cells were big enough, so I misted the eggs 3 or 4 times over the next few days, and they looked much better by lockdown day. Over half externally pipped and hatched, all assisted hatches, healthy beautiful ducklings. Some internally pipped but didn't hatch. Some never internally pipped and died sometime within the last 2 days. I feel confident in saying adding any water or running above 30% would have been disastrous.

Really? You seem to have made out pretty well (given they are hard to hatch) so I'll take your word for it! What should I keep the humidity at durning hatching? Also, I'll be using an automatic egg turner that came with the incubator. It keeps the eggs on their side and just rolls them. (It's a Janol 12 I believe, small little incubator but seems to work pretty well looking at the reviews and doing some research) Will that be okay to use?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Really? You seem to have made out pretty well (given they are hard to hatch) so I'll take your word for it! What should I keep the humidity at durning hatching? Also, I'll be using an automatic egg turner that came with the incubator. It keeps the eggs on their side and just rolls them. (It's a Janol 12 I believe, small little incubator but seems to work pretty well looking at the reviews and doing some research) Will that be okay to use?

Do you know how to monitor the growth of your air cells to know how to adjust humidity?

 

[lizardboy55]

Do you know how to monitor the growth of your air cells to know how to adjust humidity?

I wouldn't say I'm an expert on it no. I usually candle them and compare them to a chart. Is there a better, more accurate way?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I wouldn't say I'm an expert on it no. I usually candle them and compare them to a chart. Is there a better, more accurate way?

That's about the gist of it...lol You know if they are growing too big/too fast, you higher the humidity and if it's too small/too slow, decrease it? Do you have a duck egg air cell pictorial? Or chart...

 

[WVduckchick]

Yours were shipped weren't they?

Not exactly. TN to WV by way of OH. Ravyn met up with Mini for some other birds, she gave my eggs to Mini, I drove to Mini's to pick them up.

Really? You seem to have made out pretty well (given they are hard to hatch) so I'll take your word for it! What should I keep the humidity at durning hatching? Also, I'll be using an automatic egg turner that came with the incubator. It keeps the eggs on their side and just rolls them. (It's a Janol 12 I believe, small little incubator but seems to work pretty well looking at the reviews and doing some research) Will that be okay to use?

I only lost one that externally pipped (14 of 23 eggs), I waited too long to assist. It's a fine line when to go in, but the others worked out great. I was extremely pleased.

Sounds like it should work. I incubated in a Brinsea Octagon 20 that has a turner, and I stand all other eggs upright, but was advised laying down worked better for calls, so I went with that. Just make sure it rolls them well, and I'd say it will be fine.

Good luck, I hope you'll keep us posted.