Why are my ducks getting all dried out?

[happydog]

I'm trying to hatch runner duck eggs. A lot of them are getting to the end and it's almost like they're too dried out to hatch. The membrane seems stuck to them. Some of them never even pip, you can see the dark splotches under the shell, they look ready to hatch but never do. What is causing this?

I'm trying to increase humidity, now I've got it up to 70-75%. Is that high enough? I've got one in there right now trying to come out but he seems dry too and he's been at 70-75% for at least a couple of weeks. Should I lay a wet cloth over the eggs in the hatching drawer? Or is that not really the problem at all?

This has been a tough learning curve but I feel like I'm getting better. I've had a half dozen hatch just fine but I've also lost a couple dozen too. Now I'm at least losing them at the finish line instead of the starting gate.

 

[pascopol]

Try to up the humidity even higher than 75% and LOWER the temperature to 98-97 or even lower.

Fully developed embrios do not need 99.5 anymore, they will hatch better at lower temperatures.

High humidity combined high high temperature is harmful.

Commercial hatcheries do that all the time (lowering temp at hatch).

Also if you use small forced air bator the fan blowing directly on eggs may dry them up.

I use seperate hatcher for most of my species especially ducks and gamebirds which require higher humidity at hatching than chicks, turkeys and guineas.

My hatcher is Brower TH120 bator, it does excellent job as a hatcher (Large evaporation area and fan blowing gently upwards, not directly on eggs so there is no drying effect on eggs.


I improved greatly all my hatches by lowering hatching temperature.