First Hatch of Ducklings - A summary

[Russell2000]

Hello yall! I figured Id share some thoughts on how my first attempt at hatching and maybe get some feedback. The reasoning for hatching ducklings is that we have an adult male and female duck that hang out next to our chicken coop. Both of these ducks were bought as ducklings from a farm store. Last year, the female produced her first clutch of eggs and we were excited (I mean who doesnt want 10+ little ducklings running around?). We let her do it naturally however she turned out to not be a very instictive mother. She refused to sit on the clutch as far as we could tell and we had a bad flooding accident that also impacted the eggs. This year we decided we would take matters into our hands and try incubating the eggs ourselves (this is the first time we have ever incubated anything). When she dropped her first sizeable clutch (figuring the eggs can remain good up to ten days before incubation), we began as follows.

The setup

-Little Giant Incubator with circulating air and an automatic egg Turner (this is my setter)

-Farm innovators Still Air Incubator (this is my hatcher)

-A makeshift brood made out of an old rabbit cage, lined with aspen chips (I figured Aspen would be safer than cedar or pine). One heat lamp hanging above it to provide warmth

The Bad (this mostly refers to the hatching period)

- I had a very difficult time maintaining humidity within this incubator. I found that it would swing wildly between 55% (which we have determined is about the natural humidity of the room that the incubators are in as we never added water to the setter. The setter maintained 50-55% humidity) and 85%. Part of this is my fault as well for not being the best at understanding what "Lockdown" means (its so hard to leave it shut when you don't know anything is happening). I'm still kicking myself for it.

- Due to the humidity issues, I had a ton of problems with shrinkwrapping and sticky ducks. Six of the eggs that went into the hatcher failed to ever produce an internal pip (as determined by an eggtopsy). I waited on these eggs 5 days past the 28th day just in case but they did not even have a chance at making it.

So my biggest question, how can I improve humidity regulation in a farm innovator still air incubator?


The Good

-Three baby ducklings came out, with some troubles that I was able to navigate thanks some of yalls tips and looking at past threads, and are currently in the brooder sleeping and running around (pic attached). Overall super happy these three survived despite my incompetence and issues with humidity. They have proven that I can manage to hatch ducklings but I still need to improve

- The setter works wonderfully, I only had a few eggs fail to reach the hatching stage.

-I have 4 eggs due in 16 days and another 6 due in 26 days so I have an immediate chance to put what I have learned so far into action (for some reason mother duck keeps laying eggs like no tomorrow and the male keeps doing his part)


I guess thats about all I have to say... Sorry if this is long and rambling, I really would appreciate any constructive feedback you guys can give! Thanks!

 

[NatJ]

For raising humidity at hatch time, I've seen suggestions to put a wet sponge inside the incubator (obviously, use a clean sponge!)

I think it's also normal for the humidity to rise after the first chicks pip and hatch (because of the moisture from the wet chicks.) Just leaving the incubator closed might be the best thing you can do--the more hatch at once, the more the humidity rises, and the less chance of shrinkwrapping.

Sorry, I don't know about the dead-in-shell ones.

 

[Russell2000]

Update - Today marks the end of my hatching adventure until next year. The fertility of the last few sets my female mallard has laid has been atrocious and she is laying a whole lot less in general so I'm calling it quits till next year. At the end of it all, I have eight healthy succesful ducklings that have hatched. I finally got my humidity working correctly and was able to keep it constant. Despite this and being a lot less hands on I still have a pretty abysmal hatch rate for my first time (hopefully this improves with time and wisdom). I kinda feel bad for all the ducklings that failed for one reason or another but I'm super happy to have eight healthy ducklings. Thank you all for answering my questions when I had them! I cant wait to give it another shot next year.

 

[Isaac 0]

Thanks for sharing!