Incubating duck and chicken eggs together???

[Windus]

I am reading conflicting advice and wanted to post real quick and see what the consensus says...

School of thought 1: Add the chicken eggs into the incubator 7 days after the duck eggs with the same temps and humidity so they all hatch at the same time

School of thought 2: Put them in all at the same time so the chickens hatch a week before the ducks and you can raise the humidity for the last week for the duck eggs.

I can see the merits of both says.

Thoughts?

 

[R2elk]

I am reading conflicting advice and wanted to post real quick and see what the consensus says...

School of thought 1: Add the chicken eggs into the incubator 7 days after the duck eggs with the same temps and humidity so they all hatch at the same time

School of thought 2: Put them in all at the same time so the chickens hatch a week before the ducks and you can raise the humidity for the last week for the duck eggs.

I can see the merits of both says.

Thoughts?

I would do it the same way I currently do with turkey or guinea eggs and chicken eggs. The turkey or guinea eggs go in first and the chicken eggs get added 7 days later. Of course I only run around 30% humidity during incubation so everyone goes into lockdown at a higher humidity at the same time.

This also makes everyone the same age going into the brooder. It prevents having to have separate brooders for different age groups for me. This is not really relevant for ducklings and chicks since I would not put waterfowl and non-waterfowl in the same brooder.

 

[Delaneygraces]

I’d say the second option. Because like you said, duck eggs do need that higher humidity. If at all possible, I’d sugggest using 2 seperate incubators, but if this is not available, it should be okay to use the same one. Hope however you try works!

 

[ZurcherFarms]

I'm doing this right now, but didn't have a choice when to put them in because the chicken eggs showed up a couple weeks earlier. I have them in the same incubator, but for lockdown with the chicks I'll put them on separate levels so the ducks still have the turner on and the chicks don't.

I'll let you know how the hatch goes! Chicks are due Saturday, ducks on Easter day!

 

[Delaneygraces]

EASTER DUCKS!!! Awesome!! Good luck!