Duck Humidity ?

[amberspires]

We are trying to hatch duck eggs for the first time. Not sure if we are doing the humidity correctly. I am confused about the difference in humidity and wet bulb. I think the dial I have on this incubator is percent humidity. Not sure. Last night I think it didint have enough water and the humidity went down - or maybe the wet bulb not sure. Did we kill them? We are at day 18 and all 9 had been looking perfect.

 

[Amiga]

I am not a hatcher, but yes, humidity can be confusing.

Here are some links,

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/491013/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed

http://www.lwbarnhouse.com/method1.html

http://www.lwbarnhouse.com/method2.html

and @Lacrystol , @learycow @momo18clara are also hatchers

 

[Lacrystol]

We are trying to hatch duck eggs for the first time. Not sure if we are doing the humidity correctly. I am confused about the difference in humidity and wet bulb. I think the dial I have on this incubator is percent humidity. Not sure. Last night I think it didint have enough water and the humidity went down - or maybe the wet bulb not sure. Did we kill them? We are at day 18 and all 9 had been looking perfect.

Tell me your Method as it is now?? TEMP, HUMIDITY, FAN OR NO FAN?

 

[amberspires]

I think I have been running the humidity to high. The incubator has a fan. Temp is set at 99.9 and seems to hold steady. Humidity has been at 76-80. I can't get it to hold lower- it goes lower and then dives to low. I am at day 21 and I have 9 duck eggs. I think all 9 are alive- I can see them moving.

 

[Orca5094]

That is extremely high humidity, it should be more like 35% during incubation. What do your air cells look like when you candle the eggs? Do they look to be about the right size according to this chart?



If your humidity has been too high then the air cells will be too small and may result in "sticky chicks" and they may have trouble hatching out. I would try to get your humidity down right away. You may even just want to remove all water from the incubator, you might have enough ambient humidity where you live for them to be ok without added water in the incubator. But let us know what those air cells look like because that is the key to knowing how your eggs are doing and how off your humidity has been.

 

[amberspires]

The air sacks look okay but maybe a little small. I got the humidity down. So they will need help hatching?

 

[Orca5094]

The air sacks look okay but maybe a little small. I got the humidity down. So they will need help hatching?

They should be ok if you keep the humidity really down so their air cells can grow some more before hatching. No need to worry about that just yet. Just keep an eye on those air cells to be sure they keep getting bigger. You can also mist them once a day with water, if you're not already doing that. It sounds counter-intuitive, but misting them once a day will also help the air cells grow larger. Something about pulling moisture out from inside the egg when the water droplets evaporate.

 

[Lacrystol]

I think I have been running the humidity to high. The incubator has a fan. Temp is set at 99.9 and seems to hold steady. Humidity has been at 76-80. I can't get it to hold lower- it goes lower and then dives to low. I am at day 21 and I have 9 duck eggs. I think all 9 are alive- I can see them moving.

I would be concerned about them getting sticky. 70-80 is to high. Needs to be much lower. Candle the smaller end and tell me if you see any empty space

 

[Lacrystol]

If there is empty space, then you are going to have a sticky issue, I may be able to help you with that.

 

[tbevans]

I was in the same boat last week! My humidity was in the 50's and the air cells were too small. Thanks to the awesome advice from this forum I lowered my humidity to the 20's and my aircell is now around about the correct size! I was amazed how quickly lowering the humidity helped the aircell grow. I have now upped the humidity and started lockdown and hopefully will have a duckling before too much longer!