Incubating duck eggs- questions

[bordergurl]

I have a mixture of cayga & campbell khaki eggs in my Brinsea. Brinsea recommends a slightly higher humidity than for chicken eggs 45-55 RH and then 65%+ for hatching. Reading the literature and posts on BYC, it seems that RH should actually be lower than for chicken eggs- does anyone know what the correct RH for days 1-26 should be.

Secondly, I have also read that experienced duck growers mist the eggs daily from days 4-26. Pro's/Con's??? That would undoubtably raise the humidity in the bator.....

I weigh my eggs daily and plot the weight loss. Currently I am running the bator dry, registering 30% RH and the eggs have not yet lost sufficient weight (only day 3 so very early). For my chicken hatches in the Brinsea I found weighing the eggs daily very helpful and I was able to make +/- adjustments and had 100% hatch.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

 

[duckyfromoz]

I aim for a humidity of 55% for the first 25 days- then around 80 for hatching- but watch the size of the aircell for a better indication of what the eggs need - much like you weighing the eggs rather than looking at the actual humidity in the incubator. I also find that I get good hatches by doing this. A slight size difference can mean that some eggs loose more moisture than others- so its not always a one size fits all situation. I dont measure for RH. 3 days may not be long enough for any weight loss to be noticeable yet- being that they should loose around 14 % during incubation- that is only 0.5 % per day average-but they loose more towards the end of incubation meaning that during the earlier days- weight loss is minimal.
Misting is supposed to mimic the mother duck getting off the nest and eating and having a swim. Any rise in humidity from misting though is only temporary.

 

[bordergurl]

Thanks! I do look at the aircell as well! I have to say that candling is easy with the duck eggs- I can even see the deep orange of their yolk, with my chicken eggs it was only a shadow......

The cayuga eggs do weigh considerably more than the campbells so I actually plot their weight loss as two separate calculations just to be sure.

Do you do the misting?

Cheers

 

[duckyfromoz]

Some hatches I do and some I dont. It has varied between season- as I do hatch year round. At the moment I am doing a hatch with no misting as I also have guinea fowl eggs in the bator. But I dont really find much difference between when I do or dont in the machine I use now.