Hatching Duck eggs

[poultryfan73]

My one friend gave my 7 pekin x swedish cross eggs to hatch for him. What should the temperature and humidty be at? How often should i turn them??

 

[bargain]

I don't know what kind of incubator you have but I incubate my duck eggs at 99.5, mist twice a day from day 5 to 24 (leave lid off for about 8 minutes each time to let them cool down) use an auto turner, but before I had auto turner I turned either 3 or 5 times a day. Remember the lock down is day 25. (PS if you get the "bug" for more eggs, we have some gorgeous pekin ones - some with crested tops and some with no crested tops) Happy Hatching!!!! Nancy

 

[gofasterstripe]

I have 3 Swedish x Pekin mix duck and I love them, 2 are crested and 1 isnt. They are full of character and I love them.

 

[FenDruadin]

If you have a fan in your incubator, the 99.5 is correct. If it's still-air it needs to be higher (and someone else will have to fill you in on the details). Humidity will vary depending on your altitude and ambient humidity. In winter, most people need to run the humidity higher to compensate for lower external humidity. For first-timers, I recommend using the directions that come with your incubator and taking careful notes. In particular, measure the size of the air cells at each candling by drawing a circle around them. By hatch-time, you want those air cells to take up between 1/4 and 1/3 of the total volume of the egg. Any less and babies will drown, more and they won't develop properly. If you're monitoring it, you can adjust humidity and other factors to compensate from air cells growing too fast or slow. Also, your records will allow you to adjust for next time.

In other respects, hatching is much like with chicken eggs except it takes 28 days for mallard-derivatives (most domestic breeds) and 35 days for muscovies.

Good luck!

 

[poultryfan73]

Alright everything is perfect in the incubator...when should i candle them to throw out the junkers??

 

[FenDruadin]

I can tell for sure by four days, but always wait until seven just in case. Most people, even novices, can candle with confidence by day 10. Good luck & keep us posted!!

 

[poultryfan73]

Will do...what should i look for when the time comes to candle them??

 

[gofasterstripe]

This is my 1st time hatching eggs. I put 7 in and candled on day 5. I didnt have a clue what i was looing for untill I candled all the eggs. I soon found what I was looking for after getting 6 duds and 1 viable. I took out the 6 and put another 6 in...5 days later candled again and had 2 viable. Believe me..you will know what to look for if you have a viable egg in there.

 

[poultryfan73]

Hahaha alright i really hope its that easy!

 

[FenDruadin]

Absolutely fantastic candling pics here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261876

Those are for chicken eggs, but they look the same inside the egg--just that duck eggs take a little longer. Add one-third the time to each day-count to find the equivalent in duck time (i.e., if the candling is at 3 days, take one-third of 3 (which is 1) and add it to the total, which brings you to 4 days for ducks. If the candling is at 9 days, you would add 3 (which is one-third of 9) to bring you to Day 12). It's not an exact correlation, but it gives you a general idea of what to look for at each stage.