Humidity for duck incubation.

[crapwagon]

Day one of our incubation period on 12 Ancona duck eggs. I have a circulated air incubator with automatic turner. I thought I had done my reasearch and was ready to go until I got on here. Everywhere from metzer farms to any other website says to keep the humidity for duck eggs at around 80% for the first 25 days then go to 90% through hatch. But on here I've seen people say a range from 30% to 50%. Right now my humidity is holding at 60% and I hope to get an answer soon (I'm slowly going to drop it to the 50s as I post this) also people are saying to cool the duck eggs and spritz them. I have read that that isn't always the best idea because the water evaporates directly on the shell and causes them to dry out faster, if your unable to stay on it.

My conclusion to all this is there are many different ways to do it and still get a hatch. I would only like answers from someone using (or has used) a similar set up. I know it varies from what kind of bator you have.

 

[Virus]

I've never hatched ducks but I do know that humidity changes how big or small the air bubble in the eggs are. Candle them and keep track of how the air bubbles change, don't let it get too big or too small. Like about this big. Hope this offered some help.

 

[Sfraker]

I use a similar set up. I just worry about the air cell size. I check it every 3-4 days or so to ensure it is slowly working its way towards the right size. If it is getting too big too fast I increase my humidity. If it is not shrinking fast enough I lower the humidity. I try to start with the humidity around 55% then adjust as needed for each batch of eggs.

Scroll down in this thread to see the air cell size at different points of incubation.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/676090/duck-incubation-humidity

 

[crapwagon]

Thanks. I will keep track of the bubble size. Found a graph that shows it and guess I'll just log my settings and if it works keep doing it that way, if it doesn't I'll make some changes.