Towards the end...

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Hanlills777

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Hello,

Now that my eggs are in and doing well (I have 14 viable eggs out of 20) I'm just wanting to get prepared for the last few days well in advance. At the moment my temp is 37.5c and my humidity is 45. What should I raise them to towards the end and when? My 28th day is a Wednesday so if I'm to stop the eggs turning 3 days before, do I have to make sure I stop them on the Sunday or would Monday morning be ok? Also is it worth spraying them with water or do I just raise the humidity and leave them?

One last question, how soon do I move them to the brooder, do I move them straight away to allow the other ducks more room when they come out or do I leave them for a bit to dry off and encourage the others out? Sorry for the barrage of questions again, just want to make sure I do everything right :)

Hannah
 
in my inc i put a damp tea towle under the eggs just befor they hatch but dont think its sutable for all incs
leave the babies in inc till they all hatched unless take too long or opening the inc to take them out lowers humidity, the chirping of the hatched babies help the rest to hatch.
 
Think I've answered most of these questions in the other thread you have running Hanlills. Don't have the figures to hand but I think temp goes down to 37 and humidity goes up to 65. You will have this in the incubator instructions I think -check my figures. Temp goes down because the chicks are moving about and generating heat. Humidity goes up to soften the shell and membrane, otherwise the membrane dries and sticks to the chicks and they can't get out.
 
I hatched some runner ducks last july and temp/humidity is as stated by others. The one golden rule is to NOT open the incubator until all have hatched.
I was just using a Covatutto incubator with the bulb at the top and was worried they would hurt themselves as they were walking about, so I "quickly "
removed the first 2 when dry into the brooder. As a result the final 2 had trouble hatching as they were shrink wrapped with the membrane stuck to them. It ended well in the end but Marley would never have got out if I hadn't intervened, something I know is not advisable. See my post on "shrink wrapped duckling" back in July 2011.
Good luck-what breed are you hatching?
 
Thank you all, think I'm more worried about the hatching than I am about anything else. Newtoducks, I think they're khaki Campbell ducklings, the lady we got the eggs from said something like that, does that sound like a breed? Lol. Will the ducklings be ok walking over cracked shells? Or bumping around?
 
They will be bumping around. Mummy would normally remove the shells as they could get injured. I've just posted that It may be a good idea to sprinkle a little tepid (38 degrees) water in when you open the incubator so that the humidity recovers quickly.
 
Yes, Khaki Campbell is a breed of duck. When mine were hatching I couldn't sleep for the final couple of nights I was so excited.I started with 6eggs, one was infertile and one failed to hatch despite being the one that had looked strongest all along. There was one that I was unsure would hatch as there was never much movement in the run up to hatching-just a "twitch"which I thought was my eyes playing tricks on me, but it did. I had 2 hatch one day and 2 the next so don't be too hasty and give up on any that are slow to hatch. I was talking to mine frequently and from about day 26 got a cheep or two from them and a rocking movement from the shell. All very exciting and made me very "broody" and protective of them.
 
I'm already very protective lol, if any children go too close I'm straight over there (we're hatching them at school in my class) I looked at them on Thursday and one was barely visible and I had to watch very closely in order to see a movement but I did see a twitch in the end. I'm afraid he won't make it but I'm going to take a little hope from your story. Khaki campbells look gorgeous (I googled them) but to be honest ducks are my favourite animals so I don't mind what they look like, I'm over the moon to be hatching ducklings full stop :)
 
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