Questions, Questions, and More Questions

[Adrien515]

Hello there, I have some qesutions on incubating eggs. First off, fertility. I have one rooster for about 8 hens. How do I know when the eggs are fertilized? Secondly, I wish to incubate a mixture of duck, bantam, and standered sized chicken eggs. I have read little into what it takes to incubate duck eggs. Any information you can give me about it will be helpful. I have read it takes around 28 days to incubate, so I understand that if it’s not a good idea to do chicken and duck eggs together I wont do it. Thirdly, humidity. I have temperature down (setting in at 100.5 in my still air incubator) but humidity is conflicting. Somebody say between 50%-60% through the first 18 days and 65% past that, and others say anything between 40%-50%. Any suggestions?


Thank you ahead of time.

 

[sylviethecochin]

How do I know when the eggs are fertilized? Crack open some eggs. They should have a ring around the little white dot (the bullseye)

Secondly, I wish to incubate a mixture of duck, bantam, and standard sized chicken eggs. I have read little into what it takes to incubate duck eggs. Any information you can give me about it will be helpful. I have read it takes around 28 days to incubate, so I understand that if it’s not a good idea to do chicken and duck eggs together I wont do it. Chicken and duck eggs have a few different incubation needs (I believe ducks need slightly more humidity) but in general, if you set the duck eggs a week prior to the chicken eggs, you may get a decent hatch.

Thirdly, humidity. I have temperature down (setting in at 100.5 in my still air incubator) but humidity is conflicting. Somebody say between 50%-60% through the first 18 days and 65% past that, and others say anything between 40%-50%. Any suggestions? In my area, it should be between 40-50 for the first eighteen days, and 65-75 after that. I understand that that's slightly variable depending on altitude. Because of the thinner air at a higher altitude, more humidity may be required. If you don't live in the Himalayas, though, I wouldn't worry about it. Judge by air cell if you're still unsure.

 

[Adrien515]

How do I know when the eggs are fertilized? Crack open some eggs. They should have a ring around the little white dot (the bullseye)

Secondly, I wish to incubate a mixture of duck, bantam, and standard sized chicken eggs. I have read little into what it takes to incubate duck eggs. Any information you can give me about it will be helpful. I have read it takes around 28 days to incubate, so I understand that if it’s not a good idea to do chicken and duck eggs together I wont do it. Chicken and duck eggs have a few different incubation needs (I believe ducks need slightly more humidity) but in general, if you set the duck eggs a week prior to the chicken eggs, you may get a decent hatch.

Thirdly, humidity. I have temperature down (setting in at 100.5 in my still air incubator) but humidity is conflicting. Somebody say between 50%-60% through the first 18 days and 65% past that, and others say anything between 40%-50%. Any suggestions? In my area, it should be between 40-50 for the first eighteen days, and 65-75 after that. I understand that that's slightly variable depending on altitude. Because of the thinner air at a higher altitude, more humidity may be required. If you don't live in the Himalayas, though, I wouldn't worry about it. Judge by air cell if you're still unsure.

THANK YOU!!! Extremely helpful.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have never hatched duck eggs. I’ve read they need more humidity than chicken eggs but I have no experience with that. Some duck eggs hatch in about 28 days, some take 35, Muscovy I believe. Which kind do you have? I have hatched turkey eggs with chicken eggs. Those take 28 days so I just started them a week early. It worked out well. Personally since it is your first hatch I’d not mix duck and chicken eggs. Keep it as simple as you can to start with. After you get some experience you can try more complicated stuff.

Humidity is a confusing problem because there is no right answer. The humidity that works best for me might not work all that well for you. There are a lot of different reasons for that. It’s not just differences in incubators but if you move the same incubator from one side of the room to another the best humidity can change. There are differences in individual eggs too. The whites of some may be more runny or thick than others and they will have different porosity. I’ve even read where some people believe eggs laid at different heights above sea level can use different humidities. Not sure I believe that one but I’ve been wrong before. Height above sea level the incubator is at can have an effect though because of different air pressures during incubation.

There are just too many variables that affect moisture loss in the eggs for any one humidity to work best for all of us. The good news is that there is a fairly wide window of moisture loss that actually works. You don’t have to hit it perfectly to get a good hatch, but you do need to be in the general ballpark. There are different ways to go about that. The method I used was to just pick one, I picked 45%, and did a test hatch. I got a pretty good hatch but by opening unhatched eggs and trial and error I determined my best humidity was 39% to 40%.

Some people actually measure moisture loss, either by weighing or candling and tracking the air cell. I don’t do that so I won’t give you any details but you can do a search on here or maybe someone with knowledge will chime in. One word of caution though is to not go by just one egg but go by the overall average. There can be a lot of difference between two eggs kept side by side. But if your average is right most of your eggs will be in a good position.

As far as the eggs being fertile, if the rooster has been with them over a week they probably are. But you can check out this thread. It shows you what to look for when you crack and egg. If most of the eggs you crack have the bull’s eye most of the ones you don’t crack should also have it.

Fertile Egg Photos

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/16008/how-to-tell-a-fertile-vs-infertile-egg-pictures

 

[feedman77]

Good advice already given.

But using a still air. The temp needs to be 101 to 102 taken at the top of the eggs.