incubating call duck eggs, what do I need to know

[Dwen]

Let me start off saying I'm in a bad way right now. I have alot of things stacked against me:

1. all I have is a cheap Little Giant still air incubator that looks like half styrofoam cooler, half toaster oven
2. the eggs are old, meaning she stopped laying last Monday (16th)
3. the only things in way of hygrometer/thermometer wal-mart had were the cheap kind
4. five days of incubation we will be out of town, so I'll have to get someone I know to "bater-sit"
5. this is my first hatching attempt

I have already read Pete's hatching guide twice, (going on a third time) and I have also read the hatching chapter in Storey's Guide. what I still need to know is *what humidity and still are temperature is best for call ducks (or at least successful) , *how to regulate humidity, how much water in the bottom, or whether to use a sponge, or sock, *whether its the first 5 days or 10 that you don't mess with them, and *how I should go about hand turning the eggs without affecting the temp/humid too much.


I was trying to let mama duck do her thing, but mama duck isn't broody, and the eggs aren't getting any younger. I'm hoping I can save some of them, but right now I feel like a blind person taking himself on a tour of the grand canyon.

Thanks for helping,
Dwen

 

[Dwen]

Thought I'd make an update

Today is day seven of incubation.

On the 25th I started 14 duck eggs from my call Trixie. These eggs ranged in date from 3/26-4/16. Today I candled them for the first time.

One definately had a blood ring, and the other 13 were divided about 50/50 with fertile, and maybe infertile eggs. I'm really excited about the fertile ones because the heat and humidity has really gone wild these past few days, and I was afraid a lot more would be dead. I'm trying to keep the temp at 100, and the humidity at 70%. I've been turning 3 times a day every 8 or so hours. My dad will be egg-sitting this weekend while I'm out of Town, so i hope everything goes ok for him.

here's two of the eggs
:
The egg on the left was laid on Easter. The one on the right is from March 30th.