Hatching duck eggs....

[haireecat]

Hi all. In the midst of lock-down, I had three beers and decided to buy some duck eggs. I have never done ducks before. Hatched chickens, yes, but not ducks. There is so much conflicting info out there on incubation humidity, take out and cool, mist, don't mist, etc.....

My question for duck peeps is:
1. What humidity do you go for in the beginning and lockdown?
2. Do you prefer to hand turn? I have a turner, but some people don't like to use it for ducks due to size/duckling issues.
3. Do you take them out days 7-21 and let them cool, then mist?

I have a Hova-Bator 1588, with extra hygrometer and thermometer. Both are calibrated. The entire family is quite excited about these ducks, which are Crested. Hindsite being what is is, I wish I had gotten a different breed (considering the defects), but I'll do the best I can! Thank you for any replies, I appreciate it!

 

[GunnyBun]

Hi all. In the midst of lock-down, I had three beers and decided to buy some duck eggs. I have never done ducks before. Hatched chickens, yes, but not ducks. There is so much conflicting info out there on incubation humidity, take out and cool, mist, don't mist, etc.....

My question for duck peeps is:
1. What humidity do you go for in the beginning and lockdown?
2. Do you prefer to hand turn? I have a turner, but some people don't like to use it for ducks due to size/duckling issues.
3. Do you take them out days 7-21 and let them cool, then mist?

I have a Hova-Bator 1588, with extra hygrometer and thermometer. Both are calibrated. The entire family is quite excited about these ducks, which are Crested. Hindsite being what is is, I wish I had gotten a different breed (considering the defects), but I'll do the best I can! Thank you for any replies, I appreciate it!

I know nothing about ducks but I would sure like to follow and see how it all turns out. I do know with geese you have to have high humidity through the incubation process about 70% to 85%. I hand turned our geese we had, the only downside to that is you have to open the incubator a lot, we did mist them about everytime we turned them, and I dont think we ever went into lockdown with the geese because at the time we didnt know there was a point of stop turning.We hatched 7 out of 10 so it was a very good turn out, ducks might be different from geese though so you might need and expert on ducks.

 

[haireecat]

I know nothing about ducks but I would sure like to follow and see how it all turns out. I do know with geese you have to have high humidity through the incubation process about 70% to 85%. I hand turned our geese we had, the only downside to that is you have to open the incubator a lot, we did mist them about everytime we turned them, and I dont think we ever went into lockdown with the geese because at the time we didnt know there was a point of stop turning.We hatched 7 out of 10 so it was a very good turn out, ducks might be different from geese though so you might need and expert on ducks.

There's just soooo many different opinions out there! And I get it, what works for one may not work for someone else. Just hoping for some real life advice