Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[chris170284]

afternoon all ,so the wife ordered some duck eggs which wasnt a problem but hen eggs i ordered just arrived and i have a full auto incy, humidty controoll and turning and i have a manual turn with no humidity controll, the problem i have is im going back to work on monday and she isnt comfortable with having to guess how much water to put in the channles in the octagon.

 

so im wondering if i can just put both setts of eggs in the full auto untill hatching of the hen eggs at which point i can move them to the other incy for hatching,i have read online about micro bacteria and how its not good to mix eggs in the incubator but ive also read that some people have done it and had no problems.Has anyone here successfully hatched both sets of eggs in the same incubator.

[Redwing]

I hatch duck and chicken eggs together with no problems

 

I would say though that many many more of my duck eggs are affected by bacteria and die in incubation or were simply not great to start with

 

Google 'bacteria rings in eggs' to get a good pic of what an affected egg looks like and candle at weekly intervals and remove any straight away

 

Taking the lid off the incubator (not after day 18) and having a good sniff will normally tell you if there is a bad egg in there

 

Apart from that you should be fine, set all at the same time, even if you want to hatch them all in the same machine you can, the chickens will hatch a week earlier than the ducks, the raised humidity from this will be ok for the ducks eggs

 

I would put no water in at all until day 18 for the chicks, the eggs simply shouldnt need it in the early days

[chris170284]

thanks thats helped alot when u say no water how excactly do u mean what should the humidity be i normaly set it to 40% for the first 18 days

[Redwing]

I literally add no water at all. If a chick looks to be having trouble I will chuck in a bit of damp kitchen roll to bump the humidity a bit

 

I guess my inccy sits at around 30-35% normally and goes naturally up to about 45% for hatching

 

40% is not too bad up to day 18 though but I wouldnt want it to be higher if it was me

[chris170284]

ok thanks ill leave at 40 this time,i did read about dry incubation a while ago but i also read it wasnt god for the eggs i will try it dry next time thanks again

[Purplemaniacs]

With the three hatches I did last year, I followed Redwing's advice and did not put any water in until day 18 when I stopped turning.

 

Chrissie