Thread formerly known as Hatch day is today

[DUCKGIRL89]

Ok

its just I havnt seen him for two weeks

(my parents are divorcing, sorry, forgot to ad that. You were probably confused

)

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

Quote:
expecally since you have waited so long!

Yeah, it kills me to stay home, but i dont want anything wrong to happen.. I really want to go though

How far away does he live? Could you come back if something started happening?

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

An hour

but hes moving closer to us soon!

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

I say go. Your mom can watch them.

 

[stillmecle]

70%cocoa :

Stillmecle - glad you're going to set more eggs.

Ok what should the temp be to start... still air incubator?

Humidity at 75?

I am setting the only 5 eggs I have left.

Gonna try again. Gonna be hard so soon, but if I don't, I never will.​

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

Quote:
Ok what should the temp be to start... still air incubator?

Humidity at 75?

I am setting the only 5 eggs I have left.

Gonna try again. Gonna be hard so soon, but if I don't, I never will.

I'll set with you.

 

[70%cocoa]

Start with humidity at 55. But watch the air cell development. Candle every 5 or so days. Adjust the humidity if the air cell is growing too fast or too slow. The air cell needs to be almost a third of the egg by day 25/26. Getting the air cell right is really important. I also wonder if your temp wasn't a little high....can be associated with leg problems.

Im not sure of temp for a still air but I'll look it up when I get to my books.

Duckgirl, if you want to see your Dad go and see him

You being there or not won't affect the hatch. I didn't realise how important it'd be to see him before

Your eggs will be just fine.

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

70%cocoa :

Start with humidity at 55. But watch the air cell development. Candle every 5 or so days. Adjust the humidity if the air cell is growing too fast or too slow. The air cell needs to be almost a third of the egg by day 25/26. Getting the air cell right is really important. I also wonder if your temp wasn't a little high....can be associated with leg problems.

Im not sure of temp for a still air but I'll look it up when I get to my books.

Duckgirl, if you want to see your Dad go and see him

You being there or not won't affect the hatch. I didn't realise how important it'd be to see him before

Your eggs will be just fine.

I'm wondering if this is what was wrong with my first batch. The air cell. I've never checked that. The first set of ducks never even made it to the air cell. Maybe it was too small and they couldn't reach it? You've got me thinking now...

So if it's small, humidity needs to be higher. Right?​

 

[70%cocoa]

QJ, if the air cell is too small then humidity needs to be lower. Not enough moisture has left the egg. You need to encourage more evaporation from the egg. Lower humidity encourages more evaporation.

If the air cell is too big that means it is losing too much moisture too fast, so you raise humidity to slow down the moisture loss.

In a while I'll put up the diagram I have used to monitor moisture loss during the hatch. It's from one of Holderread's books. When you candle, you match the look of the egg to the diagram.

Eggs from different ducks lose moisture at different rates, I have found. It's got to do with the thickness of the shell and the mucous coating they put on it at laying time.

Interestingly, the duckling is producing water during the incubation - as it uses up the yolk a by-product is water.

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

Ok that is awesome information.

Is the book, "Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks?" I've seen Many Many reference to that book on this forum.

(I think Santa might get it for me this year...)