Why are you cooling them?
Everywhere online it says you need to cool them for 5-10 minuets every day after day 7. Then it says to help soften and cool the shell, you spray room temperature water on them, and then place them back into the incubator. Is this a must for a good hatching rate? It is supposed to mimic the mother duck leaving the nest and going for a swim or food, and coming back wet.
No. I used to do it, but it lengthens the incubation time. I did a trial, one batch of rouens cooled and one not. The cooled ones hatched a day late, but other than that they were ok. One was assisted due to a malposition. One died before it pipped, not sure why. I got 100% hatch rate on the uncooled batch. They all hatched overnight on day 27. That confirmed my suspicion it's unnecessary. This was also a relief because there are little kids in the house and I have to take all of the eggs out of the incubator and lay them on a towel to cool. I never cool now, and my hatch rates are just fine. You can if you want to, but in my experience it doesn't have any obvious benefits. I do mist the eggs after each candling, because they cool a bit while i candle them.
Thank you! I will be candling them here in a couple of days! Thanks!
There is only 4 days until my duck eggs hatch and I'm super excited!! The candling is going very well, all are fertile and developed. BUT a friend of mine is asking me to hatch some of her guinea eggs and I've never done that before. Is there ANYTHING I can do to have a good hatch rate? I know you just hatched some. How many hatched?
That's great! Guineas are pretty easy, 99.5 degrees and 35-40% humidity. They're hard to candle so don't throw any out just in case. Good luck!
Thanks! And very good news! All the eggs are moving except for one, and one is already pipping on day 24! We can even hear it chirping!
Congrats! That's great!
Should I spray them while they are hatching, or not?
