New to incubating.

[ashleycharrette]

So...
It's Day 23 in my incubator. I ordered Rouen duck eggs offline. I received 13 eggs, one egg was cracked badly when I received it and another one was a bad egg when I candled them. So that leaves me with 11 growing and healthy (I'm assuming they're all healthy) eggs. Anyways, I have a couple of questions since I'm new to this...

1. What should the humidity be at?

I've read and also heard so many answers I don't know what to believe.

2. Will you actually know when its time for them to hatch?

Thanks!

 

[Itty Bitty Farm]

I am just setting my second hatch. Twelve shipped Ancona eggs. My first hatch didn't go so well. I started with thirteen shipped Ancona eggs. No detached egg cells. Candled on day 7 and all appeared well. Candled on day 14 and two had formed blood ring-tossed. Candled on day 21 and all appeared well. Eleven eggs were moving when candled on day 24- the day before lock-down. Out of those eleven eggs only six hatched and were healthy...

Everything that I have read says 99.5 and a humidity level of 55% is about perfect until lock-down, and at lock-down raise the humidity to 70-85% and lower the temperature to 98.5. I did these things, but this time I bought a second digital gauge and realized that my original gauge may be off by 2-2.9 degrees, also I had a very difficult time keeping the humidity level steady and it varied between 30 and 65% for the first 24 days. I am trying to correct for these things this time around.

There is some debate about whether to turn the eggs three or six times each day if you do not have an automatic turner and also about whether or not you should mist the eggs. I turn four times a day at approximently 9, 1, 5, 9 and this time I plan to mist each evening after turning. I did not mist last hatch.

I'm setting my eggs for second hatch this morning.

Hope this helps!

 

[Itty Bitty Farm]

One more thing! Ducklings can take up to 48 hours to hatch! So don't worry if they don't hatch on day 28- it may be day 30!

 

[Duck Drover]

I am just setting my second hatch. Twelve shipped Ancona eggs. My first hatch didn't go so well. I started with thirteen shipped Ancona eggs. No detached egg cells. Candled on day 7 and all appeared well. Candled on day 14 and two had formed blood ring-tossed. Candled on day 21 and all appeared well. Eleven eggs were moving when candled on day 24- the day before lock-down. Out of those eleven eggs only six hatched and were healthy...

Everything that I have read says 99.5 and a humidity level of 55% is about perfect until lock-down, and at lock-down raise the humidity to 70-85% and lower the temperature to 98.5. I did these things, but this time I bought a second digital gauge and realized that my original gauge may be off by 2-2.9 degrees, also I had a very difficult time keeping the humidity level steady and it varied between 30 and 65% for the first 24 days. I am trying to correct for these things this time around.

There is some debate about whether to turn the eggs three or six times each day if you do not have an automatic turner and also about whether or not you should mist the eggs. I turn four times a day at approximently 9, 1, 5, 9 and this time I plan to mist each evening after turning. I did not mist last hatch.

I'm setting my eggs for second hatch this morning.

Hope this helps!

I use an automatic turner but I have read that if you hand turn eggs you want to do it an odd number of times (3,5,7) so they alternate on opposite sides overnight when they go the longest without being turned. Your eggs would be spending most of the time on one side and they need equal time on each side (most people write X and O on each side to keep track).