Dry hatching

[CallDuckLover01]

Hi, I have call ducks and I’m trying to hatch eggs in my incubator but not having good results. I’ve never done a dry hatch before. Would a dry hatch work with call duck eggs? If so could someone please explain to me how to do a dry hatch. Thank you

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@Overo Mare

 

[Painted Calls]

I dry hatch mine. Pretty sure @shawluvsbirds and @WVduckchick do too.

What issues are you seeing? What quality are your calls you're hatching from? Quite a few require assistance.

 

[WVduckchick]

I do also dry hatch. It doesn’t mean totally dry, it just means you don’t add any water until the final 3 days. It’s very humid where I live, and my duck egg shells are quite dense. Any water added during initial incubation doesn’t allow them to lose enough internal moisture and the air cells don’t get large enough.

I would suggest at least starting out dry. Then after 10 days or so, check your air cells and see if they are increasing well enough, or too much, and adjust from there. Slowing down the moisture loss from inside the egg is easier to control by adding water later on, than by trying to catch up the growth if they don’t lose enough.

Good luck, and keep trying. They are definitely worth it!