Skillet Bators...preheating

[GwenFarms]

I put 8 duck eggs and 12 guinea eggs in my skillet two days ago. The temp was up and the water was warm, but I'm worried the humidity level wasn't high enough. I didn't measure the levels, but I notice that today there is a film of moisture on the window and when you open it, it is more humid inside. I think next time I will let it sit for a day, or two before adding eggs. I'm not too worried about the duck eggs they can handle humidity changes I'm told, but we'll have to see on the guinea eggs.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

It is always best to let any bator run a couple of days and make sure things are running smoothly!

Now on to your humidity, what are you using to hold the water? My skillet is one of the retangular ones and all I have in it is a shot glass and my humidity ranges between 40-45%. If you follow the link below it will take you to my thread with photos of the setup, if that will help.

Is it wise to put duck and Guinea eggs together? Do they need the same enviorment and hatch time?

 

[GwenFarms]

I have set mine up very similar to yours. I have towels under my eggs, as the surface area seemed to hot. The temps and humidity is similar for both. Guinea eggs hatch at 26-28 days and ducks generally go to 30. I have to open it to turn the eggs, so I can't see any reason why I can't open it to scoop out the keats when they hatch and leave the duck eggs.

I figured this was worth a try. I am mostly concerned with the duck eggs. I have keats hatching in bators and under broodies all over town, but had noone to hatch my duck eggs and the hen won't sit, so I thought I'd try this.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

There was a thread once about dry hatching, where he brought his humidity up to the 40% and then let the water dry out for a couple days. This was on chicken eggs so I don't know about the duck eggs.

Ummm.......if you're using a shotglass for your water well how about something smaller, like a thimball? I haven't seen any humidity built up on mine so I'm thinking maybe you do need to get it cut down some?

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Here is the link for the dry incubation:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-DryIncubation.html

 

[GwenFarms]

The glass i used was actually quite a bit larger than a shot glass, I wasn't thinking about the surface of water determining humidity. I have now put a small glass that is a little bigger than a thimble, but smaller than a shot glass. I think it may be a small candle holder thingy. Hopefully this will bring the humidity down.

Thanks for the link. I'm gonna check it out.