Hatching Duck Eggs in a Suro: Day 31 and WRAP-UP

[arbucklemurphy]

Ok. I found it pipped last night at 8 in 3 little places and it still hasn't hatched or done any more pipping 12 hours later. But the egg keeps moving around and when I checked on it about 5 am I swear I heared it peeping. Do I help it or just wait???

 

[janastasio]

I would give it more time. As tempting as it is, its more damaging to open the incubator. Make sure your humidity is high so it doesnt dry out and get stuck in the shell. My ducks always took forever to come out of the shells. I found the times I helped, I shouldnt have because there was something wrong and that is why they couldnt make it out.

 

[Brickman House]

DAY 8: Well, any complications with this hatch will definitely be as a result of the operator of the incubator, not the incubator itself! Temperature holding steady at 99.5 F, but humidity's fluctuated some, between 50 and 59%. Our new kitten decided that the tube that runs from the water bottle to the pump would make a terrific play toy, and pulled it out and chewed it in half! *Sigh.* This is why kittens are cute. . . so we don't kill them.

No real harm done, though. The tube couldn't have been out of the bottle more than a few hours before we noticed it, and the shortened tube still fits in the bottle as long as we keep the water level high. We'll hit up the hardware store this weekend for a replacement length of tube. I had to run the pump a bit to get rid of an air bubble, which bumped the humidity up to 59%, but it drifted back down to normal levels (53-55%) pretty quickly.

Now we just have to figure out how to "kitten-proof" the bottle and tube assembly!

 

[Brickman House]

DAY 9: Temperature holding steady at 99.5 F, humidity at 55%. I raised the pump by putting it on top of an upside down drinking glass, and that definitely helps the kitten-chewed tube to reach lower into the water bottle. So far, it's a good temporary solution!

Here's a photo of the set-up. You will notice the glass is an upturned wine glass . . . my kitten drives me to drink.

 

[Bantimna]

I've got to follow this thread

 

[Brickman House]

DAY 10: Temperature holding steady at 99.5 F. Humidity seems to want to be at 53% more than at 55%. I'm fine with that at this stage of the game, but I think if that trend holds for the next two weeks, I'm going to set the humidity at 70% for lockdown, instead of my planned 65%. I also might, just as an experiment, bump my current humidity setting from 55% to 57%, and see if that makes the incubator trend more towards 55% than 53%.

After all, the whole purpose of this hatch is to experiment and learn the incubator, so we'll see what happens!

 

[Brickman House]

DAY 11: Temperature 99.5 F, humidity between 53 and 55%. Cooking right along!

 

[Brickman House]

DAY 12: Temperature at 99.5, humidity at 55%. It's been very rainy here the last couple of days, and the humidity in the house has been in the upper 40's, so I think that's helping the incubator hold at 55% instead of trending lower.

 

[Brickman House]

DAY 13: Temperature at 99.5 F, humidity at 55%. Kind of boring, but boring is good when it comes to incubating, right?

 

[ChickenCrazed]

Very interesting thread!..Thanks for keeping us up to date...I am hatching Silkie eggs in our new Suro and have one more week to go....Good Luck with your hatch and your new Kitten!

~Laura