Who's Hatching Ducks? Hatch With Us!! *Page 3*

[Calebs Acre]

I didn't answer you because my husband does the incubation and he is at work. But, while I am typing this, I was able to catch him and he said that he keeps our humidity as follows:

Wet Bulb 86-88 degrees or
Hygrometer 59-63%

We are not long term goose hatchers. We hatched a few last year, but this year we've not had good luck with shipped eggs. This is our first fertile egg from our own geese and it has a beak out. Only fourteen more years until it hatches, the way they hatched last year. SLOW SLOW SLOW.

Double check our numbers, but they do work well for our duckies.

 

[adrian]

Quote:
Thank you! I just don't want there to be too much moisture. I don't want the babies to drown in the air sacs...

Toulouse geese are so adorable as babies. Pictures are a must when the little one finally makes it out. Although it does take a long time, they sure are worth the wait. Do you not hatch any sebbies? They are my favourite goose, and I just wish there were eggs for me to hatch here in Canada...

 

[Calebs Acre]

So far, I have not had fertile sebbie eggs. My Sebbies are only one year right now and the eggs have all been clear. I also ordered a bunch of them and none of them developed.

I have a couple left in the incubator, but I don't think they're going to develop either.

It's a shame.

 

[adrian]

It truly is. I've heard that sebastopol eggs are a challenge to hatch, for whatever reason. Hopefully your pair will lay eggs as they age. They are such nice geese.

Keep us updated on your little gosling.

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Chiming in on the humidity thing....

I had kept my humidity rather high for the first few batches of duck eggs I did - and got one to hatch out of each bunch put in (average number of eggs set was 5). This time I left the humidity lower, like I do for chickens eggs - and had 6 hatch for me out of 12 eggs (10 of which were shipped eggs). One egg I even forgot about, and accidently left in the incubator (at about 45% humidity) and when I noticed it had pipped the shell, I put it into the hatcher at 60% humidity for the last hour as it was getting itself out of the shell. It came out perfect and dried off much quicker than the others I had hatched - no belly button problems or lethargy at all.

Now, granted, it has rained (bucketfuls) here the last week, and it is still raining about every other day a little bit for now, so it is humid outside the incubator, too. A week ago last thursday night, for instance, we got 4 inches of rain in one night!! (I lost three chicks out in the lower coop from the flooding). So humid is an understatement.
But, average humidity inside the bators were about 35% - 45%. I managed to keep the hatcher humidity at about 60% - 65% .

I'm beginning to think there is something to the whole "dry incubation" thing -- at least this time of year, where I live. Come summer it'll be dry as a bone down here, but for now, it is rather wet.
I also hatched Chicken eggs in the same hatcher, and got a 95% hatch rate on those.

Too bad I am about done hatching duck eggs for the year

I'll have to take notes so I remember next spring how high to put the humidity.

meri

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
It's not... you have to have TWO cabinets and at least 5 styro 'bators.

I don't know what I'd do without all of them. I raise two different types of bobwhites, and have to keep them separate. It's easier to just use two different incubators, right?

I'm desperately waiting on 3 ring teal duck eggs that I just set in an old "tin hen" hatcher... I can't seem to get the humidity above 50%, though... will that be ok? I have 4 pans of water and a sponge in there! Outside the humidity is 90%.

 

[Calebs Acre]

I don't know about game bird humidity at all, but I DO have A BABY DEWLAP TOULOUSE that hatched and THAT is exciting for me! Once I followed Dennis' advice and lowered my hatch temperature to 97 degrees, I hatched my dewlap and 12 (so far) out of 14 shipped crested runner eggs. What a difference! I am so happy!

I need diapers!!!!

OMG, it's been a year since I had a dewlap baby!!!! But my first one from my own egg! I know I am repeating, but I am happy about it.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Here are some call ducklings I hatched yesterday. Out of 14 eggs, I got 12 eggs to hatch.

Excuse the poopy towel. I put that in their the first day or two just to make sure they dont get spraddle legged.


On May 30th, I have Mandarins due.

 

[adrian]

Oh, how exciting! I hope you can get pictures soon of the little darling. As for diapers, you can buy "baby harnesses" but they are also rather simple to make from any fabric you happen to have lying around. But then again, four of them is only $7. They have a simple construction but make it a lot easier to take the gosling with you without having to worry about a mess. Congratulations!

And what adorable call ducklings.

Out of 13 eggs, I only got 8 fertile ones... From that, 2 died almost as soon as they had developed... My incubator temperatures are pretty stable, and the other 6 eggs are doing wonderfully. Argh, it will be a pretty pitiful hatch rate.

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Mojo Chick'n :

Ok, got three fluffy white call duck babies (one not looking so good, is very lethargic, one more black hatching as I type).

Here is Crispy and the three fluffy white ones -- (and a couple of chicks I had to put it here to shut Crispy up - she wanted her chicks to play with).

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh75/chiknmama/chiknmamaschikns/P0003708.jpg

One of the white babies has two little black spots on her back - they are so adorable

I am happy to have some whites, finally. Thanks so much DuckyBoys!!!!

meri

The fourth white call duck baby perked up and you can't even tell which one she is, now. Very happy for that

Moved the two chicks out, and moved in 6 call duck babies from the auction - so I now have 12 call duck babies in the brooder - 6 I hatched, 6 someone else hatched.

Need to get updated pics, I guess.​