Misting and cooling duck eggs, is it a must?

[AusHen]

Hi all! I placed an order for some chicken eggs and the seller has offered to throw in some Cayuga duck eggs, of course I said yes! now I have incubated chicken and quail many times but this will be a first for ducks. While looking into incubating a keep reading conflicting advice regarding cooling and misting, some say it's a must while others say it's not necessary. Just wondering what method those who have successfully incubated duck eggs used and if it's truly necessary.

 

[Runner duck mom]

We have only hatched once so very little experience...but we hatched happy healthy ducklings.
We did not mist or cool the eggs. I did however candle the eggs most every day (or every other day) because it was our 1st time and I was curious/ worried as to how they were doing. Maybe that was enough time for them to cool a bit...I just didn't feel right about misting them.
I think it will depend on your temp and humidity in the incubator.
Someone more knowledgeable will be on to help soon I'm sure

 

[Flat Earth]

I use to raise ducks and found there eggs to be harder to crack open. I say at lock down make sure to keep the Humidity high the last 3 days. Good Luck.. i have 3 incubators going.. bizy

 

[Tape]

In our some what limited experience, we have not misted our eggs but we have cooled them. It is very important to measure the humidity of your incubator. For most of the time the incubator's humidity should stay around 55%, and in the last two or three days of the hatch, be raised to 80% humidity. For these purposes, a humidity gauge can be helpful. As for cooling the eggs, that is more optional. I believe the act of cooling the eggs makes it easer for the duck to hatch. If you do want to cool your eggs, do it for 15 min, once a day for maybe a week before the expected hatch date. According to Brinsea, you can start as early as day 7 of incubation, but we only began cooling our eggs around day 20, and had reasonable hatch rates. Good Luck!

 

[wilwingswaterfowl]

I cool and mist after about 10 days. I don't know if it helps I've had good and bad hatches both ways. However it's more natural but don't leave the room and forget to put the eggs back in the incubator like I did last year.

 

[AusHen]

Thanks for the replies. I have two seperate temp and humidity gauges per incubator so will keep a close eye on that, I also have to manually turn so i can eventually let them cool once a day while I do that.
Its only going to be 3-4 eggs so I think i'll try and source some more locally to insure a decent hatch

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I have only had trouble when my humidity is too high. My last hatch, this past September, was 100% and I incubated dry (until lockdown) and did not mist.

 

[Runner duck mom]

Thanks for the replies. I have two seperate temp and humidity gauges per incubator so will keep a close eye on that, I also have to manually turn so i can eventually let them cool once a day while I do that.
Its only going to be 3-4 eggs so I think i'll try and source some more locally to insure a decent hatch

We did the manual turning as well, I didn't mind because it was only two eggs. I wish you the best of luck on your hatch If it's your 1st time it will be a little stressful and a lot of fun...especially when you candle them and can see them moving all around in the egg!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed.491013/
I used this article when hatching ours, it's long but was really helpful. It does say to mist the eggs but we just left that out.
And we ended up with our two little ducklings