First time duck hatcher needs advice

[LtDanFan]

Hi,
I am expecting duck hatching eggs (saxony, Ancona and blue Swedish) soon. I had a chick cozy incubator which i planned to use because of the capacity (i will have 21 eggs) and i thought it was better to incubate them upright due to the fact that they are being shipped) however, it is missing (long story) so i am getting a new incubator….and doing research. Please let me know your recommendations for best duck incubators. I have 2 little Brinsea Mini II’s which i love and hatched out nearly 100% of viable chicken eggs across a few hatches (obtained locally- not shipped) but these are not big enough to hatch out 21 duck eggs. I am open to all recommendations and advice about incubating duck eggs. Do i incubate them upright or on their side, even if they are shipped? I am looking for an incubator that is pretty automatic as we are currently displaced from our house and we only visit about 3 times daily. Price is less concern, but i do not have thousands to spend at the moment on these little guys. Price range is less than 4-500 ideally with a preference for less as long as it has the features i need.
I was looking at the Brinsea ovation or the Brinsea maxi but a not sure if the capacity is enough for 21 duck eggs.
Also any other advice for incubating shipped duck eggs is appreciated. This is my first experience with hatching ducks and hatching shipped eggs.
Thanks in advance!!

 

[AshVau22]

When it comes to shipped eggs how I incubate depends on the condition of the air cell. If still attached I'll put them in the Nurture Right 360. If detached I'll put them in the Brinsea upright. My best advice for ducks eggs is at day 10 begin the cooling and misting till lockdown. Ducks are super slow hatchers. Mine will stay pipped for 2 days. I've had a few go as long as 3 days before zipping and hatching. It freaks you out at first if your used to chickens hatching speed.

 

[LtDanFan]

When it comes to shipped eggs how I incubate depends on the condition of the air cell. If still attached I'll put them in the Nurture Right 360. If detached I'll put them in the Brinsea upright. My best advice for ducks eggs is at day 10 begin the cooling and misting till lockdown. Ducks are super slow hatchers. Mine will stay pipped for 2 days. I've had a few go as long as 3 days before zipping and hatching. It freaks you out at first if your used to chickens hatching speed.

How do i know if the air cells are detached or not? Which Brinsea to you use to incubate them upright? I had a chick cozy incubator because it seemed to be the only one that incubated them upright.

 

[AshVau22]

Brinsea Ovation 56 EX Incubator
When you candle the eggs. If it's detached you'll see the air sack move around as you turn the egg. If it's attached it won't move from the fat end of the egg. I always read reviews of sellers and see where they'll be shipping from before ordering off eBay. How they are package and how far away they are makes a big difference in my opinion.

 

[LtDanFan]

View attachment 4145414Brinsea Ovation 56 EX Incubator
When you candle the eggs. If it's detached you'll see the air sack move around as you turn the egg. If it's attached it won't move from the fat end of the egg. I always read reviews of sellers and see where they'll be shipping from before ordering off eBay. How they are package and how far away they are makes a big difference in my opinion.

These are coming from Indiana (I think) and I am in Wisconsin, so not far to go and they will be shipped via UPS. I will candle them when i get them and look for the air cell position and mobility. Thank you for your help.

 

[LtDanFan]

I finally got up the nerve to open the incubator and candle yesterday to look at the aircells (set them Thurs, 1 day after receiving them). They were kind of cramped in the Brinsea because some were larger than others and so not all would sit upright without be panicking about them falling out. I ordered larger trays but not all eggs will fit in incubator with the larger trays in. During candling, i noticed some had solid non-moveable air cells and some had what can only be described as “jiggly” aircells. The solid ones i moved to the mini Brinsea advanced or set in large trays in the EX (on their sides) and the jiggly ones i set in the large trays upright as much as i could with aircell up. Im not sure what to look for with regard to fertility so im going to incubate them all until something tells me not to. I plan to candle them in a few days.
So, hopefully I am not screwing things up royally so far. The eggs vary in size so some fit the regular trays and some needed to be in the bigger ones to fit securely and if i could fit both the smaller trays and the large trays in the EX is would be perfect, but the spacing does not allow for that. I was afraid the larger eggs would fall out of the regular sized trays.

I set both brooders equally at 100 degrees F with a target of 60% humidity. I read a lot and there is a wide range of information out there. Should I change any of these settings? Range from what i can tell when i have been there (they are unfortunately being incubated in an empty house due to a previous fire) has been 57% give or take humidity and 100 +/- 0.2-3 degrees. Do i need to change these settings?