Incubating mandarin duck and call duck.

[Exotic Ducks Drg]

Hello,I would like to ask about the incubation process at mandarin and call duck,Until now, I let the female take care of the incubation, but I purchased an incubator with manual turning.
-What is the optimal humidity and temperature for the incubator?
-How many times a day should I turn the eggs?
-Should the incubator be ventilated or should the eggs be sprinkled with water?
If yes, how many times a day?
-After how many days should the eggs be moved to the hatchery?
-What temperature and humidity should I have in the hatchery?
-What temperature should I have in the room where I store the incubator?
If I missed something, please correct me.
I wish you a good day!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Generally speaking, most species of birds need a temperature of about 99.5F/37.5C. When in doubt, always use that.
Humidity for ducks is about 55% for most of incubation and raised to near 70% close to incubation. You can mist the eggs with warm water after day 10. These two issues are likely due to the fact hens will swim for a bit and bring water/humidity back to the nest.
Call duck incubation is only 26 days. Mandarin is 30 days.
IMHO, all birds' eggs should be turned as frequently as possible the first two weeks or so of incubation. Less necessary later on. This is because of the fact the allantois, chorion and amnionic membranes form early in gestation. Basically, these membranes facilitate transferring nutrients and oxygen to the embryo. Turning helps the membranes develop.
If you incubate both species together, the same basic conditions apply. If you are hatching in a hatcher/separate incubator, just move the Call Ducks at about day 24 and raise the humidity then. Transferring to the hatcher (what some call lockdown) isn't time critical. The idea is to just raise the humidity prior to pipping.
Since you are turning manually, just turn as much as possible early on or in my opinion, at least 3 times a day. When I turned by hand, II marked egg sides with a 1, 2 and 3: putting one of the numbers on top after each turn. This allowed me to keep track of what I had done. Most people mark with an X or O, turning 180 degrees with each turn. A hen doesn't mark eggs. All she knows is that she is turning.
Ventilation isn't necessary the first 4 or 5 days because you'll be opening the incubator to turn. As the embryos develop, their oxygen needs grow, and ventilation becomes more important.
While incubating, keep that ambient space as warm and humid as possible. The farther below incubation temperature the ambient air is, the harder the incubator works and the more frequent variation the eggs experience. Drier air makes keeping the incubator humidity high tougher.
If possible, pre-incubation storage should be a constant cool temperature below that which cell division begins. I like about 60F if possible or lower if storage will be longer than a week. Avoid wide temperature swings and you should also turn eggs during storage.


Another point on humidity. The idea of maintaining humidity is to control moisture/weight loss in eggs and thereby controlling the size of the air pocket. A reliable hygrometer is important but for absolute accuracy, I prefer to weigh eggs at about 1 week intervals because all eggs vary in porosity so the only way to be sure humidity has been correct is to weigh the eggs.

 

[Exotic Ducks Drg]

Generally speaking, most species of birds need a temperature of about 99.5F/37.5C. When in doubt, always use that.
Humidity for ducks is about 55% for most of incubation and raised to near 70% close to incubation. You can mist the eggs with warm water after day 10. These two issues are likely due to the fact hens will swim for a bit and bring water/humidity back to the nest.
Call duck incubation is only 26 days. Mandarin is 30 days.
IMHO, all birds' eggs should be turned as frequently as possible the first two weeks or so of incubation. Less necessary later on. This is because of the fact the allantois, chorion and amnionic membranes form early in gestation. Basically, these membranes facilitate transferring nutrients and oxygen to the embryo. Turning helps the membranes develop.
If you incubate both species together, the same basic conditions apply. If you are hatching in a hatcher/separate incubator, just move the Call Ducks at about day 24 and raise the humidity then. Transferring to the hatcher (what some call lockdown) isn't time critical. The idea is to just raise the humidity prior to pipping.
Since you are turning manually, just turn as much as possible early on or in my opinion, at least 3 times a day. When I turned by hand, II marked egg sides with a 1, 2 and 3: putting one of the numbers on top after each turn. This allowed me to keep track of what I had done. Most people mark with an X or O, turning 180 degrees with each turn. A hen doesn't mark eggs. All she knows is that she is turning.
Ventilation isn't necessary the first 4 or 5 days because you'll be opening the incubator to turn. As the embryos develop, their oxygen needs grow, and ventilation becomes more important.
While incubating, keep that ambient space as warm and humid as possible. The farther below incubation temperature the ambient air is, the harder the incubator works and the more frequent variation the eggs experience. Drier air makes keeping the incubator humidity high tougher.
If possible, pre-incubation storage should be a constant cool temperature below that which cell division begins. I like about 60F if possible or lower if storage will be longer than a week. Avoid wide temperature swings and you should also turn eggs during storage.

Thank you very much for the advice!
Have a nice day!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

At any one moment during incubation, the most important thing is temperature. Everything else is variable to a point. Your best tool is a guaranteed accurate thermometer. There are a few options that won't break the bank and that doesn't include an Accurite from Walmart. I can give you some options if you wish.
I never could keep a hygrometer calibrated so for years, I didn't even use one but rather used a good gram scale to track weight loss. Hatchability decreases if weight loss is too high or too low. For most species, about 13-14% during incubation is good. You can make a chart on graph paper and with a weight upon collection, settting and weekly thereafter, you can see on your graph whether you need higher or lower humidity.