June Hatch A Long

[jolenesdad]

Hatched ducks only once, last year. Yes, I misted them lightly with cool filtered water once a day. I also hand turned. My eggs from a friend were so dirty, so I also dipped half in bleach and left the other half dirty. Almost all (15/18) eggs hatched so dip probably made no difference.

I kind of wish I hand turned. I have some eggs that would not fit at all in the regular Brinsea trays so I ordered the larger ones for geese and they roll around in there slightly. I read so much about it being better for duck eggs to hand turn. I wonder why that is.

Maybe I’ll take them out and hand turn some. Decisions, decisions.

 

[Kris5902]

They always look more crowded in the incubator without the turners. Here we are going into lockdown with 40 eggs.

I’ll have to recheck my humidity in the morning... it had dropped back to 48% from our last spike during candling, and I had a similar spike today when removing the turner. I’m going to add water very, very carefully in the amount of drops at a time and waiting an hour or so before adding more.

 

[AquaDuck]

Does anyone mist their duck eggs?

Yes. I take them out of the incubator and mist with tepid water, let them stand until the mist has evaporated and put them back in. (First times I let them stand for 5 mins, but I kept forgetting them and 5 mins turned to 30 mins before "omg! I forgot to put the eggs back in!!!" so now I stand by them until they're dry. )
Misting inside the incubator will only raise the general humidity and that's the opposite of what you want to happen. Wetting the eggs temporarily increases the permeability of the shell, so moisture can get out and air in, but that only works if the humidity outside the egg is low enough.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

They always look more crowded in the incubator without the turners. Here we are going into lockdown with 40 eggs.

View attachment 1801767

I’ll have to recheck my humidity in the morning... it had dropped back to 48% from our last spike during candling, and I had a similar spike today when removing the turner. I’m going to add water very, very carefully in the amount of drops at a time and waiting an hour or so before adding more.

You want to fill as many of the bottom troughs that it takes to get humidity up to 70%. By fill I mean FILL them. The depth of water does not affect the humidity but does take longer for it to evaporate. By filling you usually don't need to add more water before they hatch. Surface area of water is what affects humidity. The number of troughs with water to make 70% RH is what you stick with.

RH will not stay constant if you open the incubator. It can't. You've released the water vapor when opening. It will quickly return to the constant it was. Hydrometers are slow to read, it's regaining humidity faster than you think.

 

[SueT]

And meanwhile, here at Chez Poulet....day 14

 

[CluckNDoodle]

@CluckNDoodle i came across this thread that has pictures of the first stage at day 2 of the duck eggs and a germinal disc. Is this what those mallard eggs looked like??

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/duck-egg-candling-photo-diary.304863/

Awesome thread! Thanks!
Nope, what I saw was much smaller, more like the dark dot she's pointing out as the heart growing but I didn't notice the disc, possibly just because I need new glasses though, lol. I could see that the coloring had a pinkish/red cast to it that made me think it was earlier development and with the varying stages they're in after only a few days in the incubator I would say that's what I was seeing. I'll take some more pics at the end of the week. I peeked at my chicken eggs last night and they were looking great! I should have taken some pictures, it's so cool!

 

[LilyD]

Does anyone mist their duck eggs?

I don't mist directly on the duck eggs but add more water to the sponges whenever I have to open the incubator. The water as it dries on the eggs can cool the eggs so worry it might do more harm than good on the eggs themselves.

 

[Allie Grace Sanders]

My GLW decided to go broody, too! So now ive got 5 more eggs going!

 

[jolenesdad]

@LilyD i just checked in on your babies and saw some shaking!

Are you playing music for them?!?

 

[Kris5902]

You want to fill as many of the bottom troughs that it takes to get humidity up to 70%. By fill I mean FILL them. The depth of water does not affect the humidity but does take longer for it to evaporate. By filling you usually don't need to add more water before they hatch. Surface area of water is what affects humidity. The number of troughs with water to make 70% RH is what you stick with.

RH will not stay constant if you open the incubator. It can't. You've released the water vapor when opening. It will quickly return to the constant it was. Hydrometers are slow to read, it's regaining humidity faster than you think.

Due to the environmental humidity, it actually spikes for me when I open the incubator. My last hatch over 60% drowned in the last day, so I am being very cautious, I will let the humidity stabilize and increase it very slowly and carefully through the vent hole with a straw if needed. I can’t go through another repeat of fully formed DIS chicks again.

I’m at close to 50% humidity running completely “dry” with both vent plugs open, if I fill the wells it goes up over 80% very quickly, I might need to fill one... I will check when I return home. They share the building with a heavily used laundry, shower, and dishwashing facility in the very damp Pacific North West. I’ve had the humidity spike to 70-85% with rainy days, and we have rain forecast.

I want to share cute chick pics, not eggtopsies again. Staying positive I don’t open the incubator to add water I use a straw through the handy vent hole.