Duck hatch percentage rates

[Squishychicken]

So I recently hatched out some ducks put a couple dozen in and only 2 babies. They were all viable until day 27. Did everything right maintained humidity and temps. My incubator is forced air and had multiple thermometers and hygrometer and an egg Turner. So everything was maintained.
Well someone explained how a mother duck then broody (I've never had one) gets off the nest and eats and all that like a chicken but she also bathes so that the surface of the eggs are damp. She said she talked them out of the bator cools them down slightly (see pic for details) misted them and put them back in and her hatch rates were much better then if she didnt.

I'm wondering if anyone else does this method or what else they do to get a good hatch rate.

Also what does everyone do for temp and humidity?

 

[Ducks106]

I wish someone would answer this. I just had the same situation, but none of mine hatched. I had seven in the incubator. The first two weeks were going great and then they just stopped. I also had perfect temp and humidity. And I also saw the story about taking them out and spraying g them. Are you my twin or something.? Lol
I just told my daughter in law today that that was the plan I was gonna do with my next batch. I have read so many things on what to do that it’s getting confusing. Some say this some say no don’t do that. I also would love to hear from people to hear how they tweeked their hatches.

 

[Ducks106]

What kind of incubator do you have Squishychicken?

 

[Mademoiselle_JubJub]

I have to say that I am kind of skeptical of this method. Based off what I have witnessed with my brooding ducks, I don’t see how the eggs decrease that much in temperature during her time away from the nest. My ducks always cover the eggs in an insulating blanket of their down, feathers, and dry grass. One of my ducks hates getting into the pond or water dish and only does a “spit” bath to her top half. Despite this she had the best hatch rate at 100% of her 12 eggs. It might be a chance of bad luck, where one batch of eggs in the incubator were bad or had a genetic issues, leading to a bad hatch when the traditional hatching methods were followed, then the next time good eggs were available when the new method was tried creating a false positive. Of course this is just my opinion based off my observations of one flock and not a controlled experiment. Add to that I have never used an incubator so my experience on that end is severely lacking.

 

[PaulX]

I find that, for our climate at least, the 'correct' temperature isn't correct.

The thing is, the eggs start to produce their own heat some days after incubation. After about 2 weeks or so into the incubation, I need to start lowering the incubator temperature to below the 'correct' level, at some point I need to set it at 35 C 95 F. If I set it at 'correct' temperature, the egg temperature itself will get too high, possibly deforming or killing it.

Our climate is such that the room the temperature in has a temperature range of 30-35 C 86-95 F between the day and night.

What I do for temperature is I measure the egg shell temperature, by touching the temperature probe of the digital thermometer with one of the central eggs (and leave the probe there touching it as the incubator runs). I control the egg shell temperature to be between 37.5-38.3 C 99.5-101 F, ideally as close to 37.8 C 100 F as possible.
Basically, I follow this guide.
http://en.aviagen.com/assets/Tech_C...s/Ross_How_Tos/RossHowto3EggShellTempEN13.pdf

Even already setting the temperature below the 'correct' one, my eggs already tend to hatch early, indicating it's actually still too warm. My last batch of runner eggs, which were supposed to hatch at 28.5 days, all hatched within day 27, or within 26.5 days.

I don't mist my eggs (tho I cool them often), and I had a hatch rate of 20/24 on my first try. My second try, I hatched 2/3 of the undamaged eggs, and 3/9 of the floating air cell eggs.

 

[123RedBeard]

This talks about misting and cooling, also lowering temp last few days ... https://www.metzerfarms.com/IncubatingAndHatching.cfm?affiliate=undef&CustID=23929497

 

[Squishychicken]

I have a little giant

 

[Squishychicken]

So I will be starting a new batch soon I don't think I'll cool the eggs off that much but I'll let them cool however much they can while I candle all the eggs. I dunno if I'll spray or not I'll see how may I have growing and then decide.

What does everyone do for humidity?

 

[Absolutely Quackers]

Hi Everyone - I had the same problem the first time around. I changed 2 things next time and have had very high hatch rates ever since. First - temp 37.5 and humidity around 70% throughout. Second - I hand turn the eggs 2-3 times a day a full 180 degrees (turn them over basically). The auto turners don't shift the eff enough for it to work. Worth a try if you can. Best, B

 

[Knighstar679]

Humidity really depends on what it is base line in your area. Here where I am in New York humidity is about 45-65% everyday so I run my batons at 25-35%. I also mist my eggs once a day right after candling ( yes I candle daily), and allow them to cooled during this time.

My results have be much better than my first set where I has 3 out of 12 hatch. Going up to 8 out of 10 for my best. I also have only hatched shipped eggs for the most part.