It's Day 25 of incubation on my mixed batch of duck eggs. I started with 14 full size mix breed duck eggs and 7 Mallard. Two of the full size were clear at 10 days and were discarded. Not bad considering how cold it was when they were collected. I'm assuming they froze, even though the shell wasn't cracked.
These are the most vigorous developers I have ever hatched. They are in a Harris Farms 360 incubator and were too large to turn in the rack as they just barely fit in the spaces. I hand turned them 3 times a day. The humidity was lower than usually recommended for waterfowl as I was closely tracking the size of the air cell to ensure proper shrinkage. It was cycled from 45% down to around 25% and then brought back up every couple of days.
A few days ago I gave up candling because only a dark mass was visible at this stage. This morning the turner rack came out and lockdown started. They were in the rack to keep them in a stable position for turning and allow for them to be shuffled around for more even development if the heat was variable in different areas of the incubator.
While moving the eggs to a tray while removing the turner and then setting them back in the incubator I had trouble getting them to stay where I put them. They got scrunched together for stability and the cover went back on. Surprise! The are already rocking and rolling, trying to pip out.
Now I need one last bit of help from experienced duck hatchers. What should the humidity be for these last 3 days? Is 60-65% a good place to be?
These are the most vigorous developers I have ever hatched. They are in a Harris Farms 360 incubator and were too large to turn in the rack as they just barely fit in the spaces. I hand turned them 3 times a day. The humidity was lower than usually recommended for waterfowl as I was closely tracking the size of the air cell to ensure proper shrinkage. It was cycled from 45% down to around 25% and then brought back up every couple of days.
A few days ago I gave up candling because only a dark mass was visible at this stage. This morning the turner rack came out and lockdown started. They were in the rack to keep them in a stable position for turning and allow for them to be shuffled around for more even development if the heat was variable in different areas of the incubator.
While moving the eggs to a tray while removing the turner and then setting them back in the incubator I had trouble getting them to stay where I put them. They got scrunched together for stability and the cover went back on. Surprise! The are already rocking and rolling, trying to pip out.
Now I need one last bit of help from experienced duck hatchers. What should the humidity be for these last 3 days? Is 60-65% a good place to be?
I'm good with the middle, it was just the beginning and end I wanted to confirm. Been a couple of years since I did any waterfowl.
