I am probably picking up duck eggs from the health food store tomorrow,and I was just wondering:A duck hatch is pretty much like a chicken hatch except ducks take longer right? Are there any temp/humidity/turning differences? Just a quick question........
I think they are different in every way you mentioned. Try using the search button asking about incubatoring duck eggs. Good luck.
fluffy, there can be a lot of differences, depending on your scale and level of incubation. To keep it simple, you can use multi-stage parameters as this would be easier for you. Use 99.5 for the first 25 days with a humidity of about 50-55%. for the last 3 days, drop to 98.5 F and increase your humidity to about 60-65%. Depending on the duck eggs of course, most duck breeds will take about 28 days. Muscovies, about 35 and mulards, 32. I find that the spread of the hatch is a bit longer with ducks than chickens. use those parameters and you'll be fine. if you have a high level incubator then and can accurately control humidity and carbon dioxide, i can give you a better parameter scheme that i found to increase my hatch rate by about 11%. hope this helps.
Ok, I know that there's temp/humidity differences, but what about turning?Are there any differences there? And, is it safe to keep the temp at 100 or will the babies turn into duck stew? And also, I don't have a hydrometer. Is that safe or do I need to pick one up?
How will you know if your humidity is right if you don't have a hygrometer? You could try it without one and hope, but they aren't that expensive and would save the guess work. I think your temp will be fine at 100. That was my "magic" number and I've had great hatch rates from all my hatches(except the last one, and I got lazy )
