Hatching call eggs in an incubator...what are we doing wrong?

[SharW75]

We have a nice flock of call ducks, and our daughter likes to hatch some out every year and take the best to show at the fair. We have had great luck with them hatching under a broody (duck) hen, with a nearly 100% hatch rate, but when we try to incubate eggs, we are struggling.

Again, fertility is not the issue; it must be our technique. We've tried a couple of different incubation methods. First, 99.5 degrees (verified by several temp probes) and 45-50% humidity to lockdown, then bump it up to 60-65%. The second year, we tried the same temp, but a dry hatch, then bump humidity up at the end. This year, we're trying the same temp, but 60% humidity the whole time and cooling and misting for 10 minutes a day starting on day 8.

Every year, including this year, the babies begin developing, then we lose them at various times throughout the incubation. Some quit early, some get to full term but don't absorb the yolk, and some make it all the way to the end, but never internally pip. We have had one duckling internally pip, then fail to do anything more. We assisted that hatch, and that duckling is the only one we've hatched successfully in an incubator.

These calls are not super typey, therefore, shouldn't have as many issues as the more show quality ones, so what are we doing wrong?

I should add that the incubators we are using are both NurtureRight 360s (one is brand new), and we have hatched a variety of other poultry and fowl successfully, including peafowl. We just can't get the call duck hatching right.

Any tips?

 

[cheezenkwackers]

First, I have never hatched Calls but here are my thoughts if it helps.

Are you washing the eggs before setting (you shouldn’t be)? Have you sterilized the incubator between hatches? Bacteria would explain them dying at different stages and being weak at the end.

When you raise the humidity at lockdown, you are using cool water not hot, right? Hatching begins due to lack of oxygen, you don’t want to raise the humid too fast and make it hard for them to breath.

I do not think you will be successful raising the humidity. High humidity doesn’t allow enough moisture to evaporate resulting in too small of an air sac and ducklings too big to move in the egg so they die at the end.

I hatch different poultry several times a year. Like you, I have no trouble with chickens. I just hatched 23 Silkies out of 24 eggs (one egg was infertile). I usually don’t have trouble with ducks either until the last few years trying to hatch Dutch Hookbill’s. Like Calls they are known to be more difficult to hatch. I do good to get a 50% hatch rate. I say all this just to say, if it’s none of the other things, it might just be genetics.