frustrating experience in duck hatching

[chickens really]

broody muscovy moms do great. i have gotten 13 out of 15 once from her.

it sounds like humidity issue. they start pipping at 25 days as well and first one usually come out at day 26.

maybe i lower the temperature a bit to slow down development and give it more time for evaporation?

Temp must be too high if hatching early..

 

[njchickenrookie]

isn't it normal for first one to come out a tad earlier by a couple of days? i usually hatch a full incubator of eggs. 20-30 goes to lockdown.

 

[chickens really]

isn't it normal for first one to come out a tad earlier by a couple of days? i usually hatch a full incubator of eggs. 20-30 goes to lockdown.

Are you not starting them all on the same day?...

 

[njchickenrookie]

i always start them on the same day. i collect eggs for a week. let cool egg sit on turner at room temperature so it gets property turned while waiting for enough eggs.

 

[chickens really]

i always start them on the same day. i collect eggs for a week. let cool egg sit on turner at room temperature so it gets property turned while waiting for enough eggs.

I store all my eggs in a cool place in an egg carton and pointy end down I tilt the carton on a book once a day and I hatch all eggs on their side and hand turn 3 times a day.

 

[njchickenrookie]

my turner (without turning on the incubator) is in a room of 60 F

 

[chickens really]

Also I lay my eggs on the counter while my incubator is setting up and about 6 hours later I add them to the incubator.

 

[Emmaxx]

I'd have said using the turner before incubation was probably overkill, but if it was your issue I would imagine they would quit early on.

I think it's definitely a humidity/temp problem. You say you incubate at 99.5 though, but your eggs are behaving like it's higher

I read a great paper from Brinsea that went into detail about how temps can affect the embryo, like (and this isn't a quote, I'm just making it up as an example) high temps cause the heart to develop early/fast, and something like that could explain why the duckling died later on as more stress was put on the heart.

You said you knew not to trust your incubator and that you have a wet bulb Hygrometer too, do you have a second thermometer too?

 

[njchickenrookie]

i do not have a hydrometer. i was just using local atmosphere pressure to calculate / convert.

yes i have three additional thermometers. they all stay within 1 degree of each other.

i played with dry hatch b/f. works better earlier in the season (earlier spring) but not later in the season. probably due to dryer environment humidity in the summer.

 

[Emmaxx]

Is there a particular reason you want to incubate yourself?

Don't give up, just do it dry earlier in the season, and then let your ducks/chickens do it themselves later in the season when your success starts to suffer from the weather etc?