Incubation tips

[fishin_dad]

I need advice from any of you with experience with incubating duck eggs. What temps and humidity work best. My incubator has a vertical turner but I remove it for lockdown and lay the eggs horizontal and my first attempt had horrible results. Day 30 and 2 have hatched, 5 quit early on, 2 pipped and didn't make it, 8 died after lockdown and 1 wasn't fertile.

 

[casportpony]

What incubator is it?

 

[fishin_dad]

What incubator is it?

Farm Innovators 4250

 

[casportpony]

Farm Innovators 4250

Does that have a fan?

 

[fishin_dad]

Does that have a fan?

Yes

 

[casportpony]

Yes

Can you get extra temp/humidity sensors for it? I ask and suggest this because I think you will find that the heat might not be evenly distributed.

 

[fishin_dad]

I have a thermometer/hygrometer that the probe will fit through the vent hole in the lid. 10 of the eggs did great until after the first one hatched and rolled the other ones around. Most of the remaining 10 appeared to have a detached air cell. It looked like an air cell in both ends of the egg

 

[HollowOfWisps]

1. Are you using shipped eggs, local or ones you collected from your flock?

2. Do you have both an Analog (not digital) thermometer and hygrometer?

3. What temperature and humidity were you incubating at?

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I had trouble incubating eggs until I did two things. One, I added an external thermostat. Turns out that most incubators operate on timers not thermostats. So, if the room temperature changes they become too hot or cold. This is what I bought. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01HXM5UAC/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_inactive_ship_o0_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1. It has a probe that I keep by the eggs so no temperature issues.

Two, I incubate dry, vents open, but I keep a humidifier on in the room (at lock down I add water). There is a great article about humidity on this site (I just don’t remember exactly where).
I use a cheap styrofoam incubator and my hatch rates have gone up. The last one was 100% for the 5 eggs that were fertile.

 

[fishin_dad]

These are eggs from my ducks.

1. Are you using shipped eggs, local or ones you collected from your flock?

2. Do you have both an Analog (not digital) thermometer and hygrometer?

3. What temperature and humidity were you incubating at?

These are eggs from my ducks. I have 2 digital thermometer/hygrometer tat I calibrated. I started with 100 degrees and 55-65% humidity. At lockdown I dropped the temp to 98degrees and 70-75% humidity