Hi everyone! This is my second hatch ever. My first hatch was chicken eggs which went alright. I thought I'd try my hand at hatching duck eggs this time. All the eggs were from our own flock. On day 0 (incubator reading), I set 42 eggs and then 6 eggs the day after for a total of 48.
On day 25 (incubator reading), I disabled the turner and placed the eggs on the hatcher. During then I noticed one of the eggs had already externally pipped and feared I may have shrunk wrapped that egg. My first hatch had 2 shrink wraps due to opening and closing the bator multiple times, so I learned my lesson not to do that. I thought if I increase the humidity maybe the membrane might moisten and so for 2 hours I brought the humidity up to 80% and then let it naturally drop to 68-70% where it has been since then. Good news, that duckling hatched but it is day 26 now and I am not seeing any more external pips at all since that hatch.
During the incubation period, there had been a couple humidity spikes late at night when I was asleep, it went past 60% for a few hours each time until I'd wake up and open a vent to bring it down to 45-55%.
My mind is honestly all over the place, the humidity spikes coupled with me intentionally raising it 80% is making me think I may have been very dumb and drowned my ducklings. I'm feeling a lot of regret and hoping someone can educate me if I've made any mistakes or maybe I'm just being restless for no reason.
For reference, during my first hatch (chicken eggs), half the eggs that hatched did so on day 19, the rest on day 20 and none from day 21 onwards. So upon seeing an external pip this time on day 25, I was at least hoping a few more would've progressed by now. Sorry for the long read, and I would appreciate all your constructive criticisms.
On day 25 (incubator reading), I disabled the turner and placed the eggs on the hatcher. During then I noticed one of the eggs had already externally pipped and feared I may have shrunk wrapped that egg. My first hatch had 2 shrink wraps due to opening and closing the bator multiple times, so I learned my lesson not to do that. I thought if I increase the humidity maybe the membrane might moisten and so for 2 hours I brought the humidity up to 80% and then let it naturally drop to 68-70% where it has been since then. Good news, that duckling hatched but it is day 26 now and I am not seeing any more external pips at all since that hatch.
During the incubation period, there had been a couple humidity spikes late at night when I was asleep, it went past 60% for a few hours each time until I'd wake up and open a vent to bring it down to 45-55%.
My mind is honestly all over the place, the humidity spikes coupled with me intentionally raising it 80% is making me think I may have been very dumb and drowned my ducklings. I'm feeling a lot of regret and hoping someone can educate me if I've made any mistakes or maybe I'm just being restless for no reason.
For reference, during my first hatch (chicken eggs), half the eggs that hatched did so on day 19, the rest on day 20 and none from day 21 onwards. So upon seeing an external pip this time on day 25, I was at least hoping a few more would've progressed by now. Sorry for the long read, and I would appreciate all your constructive criticisms.
