Help. Temp and humidity are way off

[BucksBoo]

I brought the duck eggs in and put them straight in the incubator. It’s settings were right. But now they are off and I can’t get the temp up and the humidity down. I read that I was supposed to leave them out for 24 hours before putting them in incubator. Humidity is reading 74 and temp is 35.6. Should I take them out? They were cold. They’ve been in incubator now for about 2 hours.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Okay, they shouldn't have started developing yet. I believe it takes 6-9 hours for a chicken embryo to begin to develop, and I can't imagine it's too different for ducks. You can take them out and try to fix your incubator. You might try doing a "test run" with a soda can full of water, or a half-dozen store-bought eggs, to see how they affect temp retention.

If your humidity's too high, I recommend a sock full of rice. Rice likes water, and hoards it.

EDT: And the "rest thing" is for shipped eggs, to help stabilise air cells. And there's some debate as to whether it actually helps anything.

 

[BucksBoo]

So I put a heat lamp near my incubator and it elevated the temp and lowered the humidity. My incubator is new, but according to the reviews the temp/humidity settings are unreliable. I have found that to be true. I am using other humidity/temp gauges that are more reliable.

I also have rice in with them. That most likely helped also with the humidity. Thank you.