Unsure what eggs are in incy

[Yvonne]

Hi

We have Khakis and a Muscovy. OH borrowed a Rcom 20 pro from our neighbour and put 12 ducks eggs in and it is set to ducks which, of course, is 28 days. All 12 are growing with 11 days to go. I realised there could be a problem. Have asked others and no one knows the answer.

If Bacardi is laying and we know Coke is doing his bit, we can't tell the difference between the Muscovy eggs and the other ducks'. They are all white and same egg shape. If there are Muscovy eggs, they need another week. Will the raised humidity affect them? Do we reset it, or leave it and hope. We have never used an incy before. Does it stay on after the 28 days in case there are late hatchers.

Our neighbour only has Muscovies.

Any advice, please, how to do this

Thanks

 

[dorsetduckowner]

I dont know personally but interested to know the answer....

 

[chrismahon]

I've never been in that position before Yvonne. Candling will tell you which ones have chicks. When they hatch and have dried they will be moved to a brooder and the incubator can stay on. The humidity affects the air sac development and I doubt raising it will have that much effect. The slightly lower temperature shouldn't have that much effect either, but will slow the hatch down a bit.

Your problem may be integrating two hatches, as one will be a week behind and rather fragile. Another will be keeping them warm at this time of year. We did a late hatch a year ago and it cost a fortune in electricity over Winter with heat lamps.

 

[foxy]

Keep the humidity at 45% throughout. Candle them @27 days and if you see that they have internally pipped..ie the beak has broken into the air sac and they are moving into hatching position then raise to hatching humidity for ducks...@ 65 - 70% humidity until the hatching is more or less complete.

If at 27 days none look ready then leave at 45% and assume they will be hatching @ 35 days. If they are out of sync slightly, don't worry take the early ones out when hatched and feathered, drop the humidity down, for 24 hours @ 35% then candle the remaining eggs to check development. Depending on how they look on candling increase to hatching humidity or leave for a couple more days @ 45% humidity.

You might want to invest if you have not already done so in a good quality candler to help you assess development of your ducklings.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Yvonne]

Thank you so much for your replies.

Foxy, is there a candler you would recommend, that's not silly money. At the moment been using torch and tube out of kitchen roll.

We candled them all on Fri at 14 days and they all appeared to be at the same stage. 11 of them were black one side with blood veins the other and the 12th one was black one side with no blood veins, which I have been told is ok. Did manage to see one moving,

Haven't worked out the brooder bit as yet. I do have a hanging lamp with an infra red bulb. He has said they can stay in the house, which is on economy 7 and solar panels, unlike the barn. Won't be able to hang the lamp up, unless I can be inventive. Still have 10 days.

 

[Marigold]

I hung my lamp from a piece of 2X1 scrap wood, clamped horizontally, sticking out from the top shelf of a bookcase. I screwed a hook in to the bottom side of the wood to hang the chain on. This was handy as I could lower it a notch or two at night when the house got colder. (This was in freezing February weather though.) I put a max/min thermometer in the brooder box underneath, so I could check the actual temperature the lamp was giving - it took me a day or two to get this right, night and day, so its worth getting the brooder sorted out and warmed up well in advance. I found it mapped a terrific difference when I lined the sides of the cardboard box I was using with the reflective foil you can get to go behind radiators. The heat was much more evenly dispersed and retained right to the edges.