Hi, I'm new here, and new to hatching eggs. I had hoped not to have to but a fox scared one of my ducks off of her nest (it jumped on the roof but never managed to get inside the fence, the opening of the nest box leads into the pen but the box itself is outside the pen).
I rigged up a cardboard box incubator and I'm not having any trouble with temperature but I keep finding different information on what the humidity should be. One site says 82-86 wet bulb, in which case I should be ok, but another says 86-88 in which case I might have a problem since I can't seem to get the humidity up that high.
What should the humidity be for duck eggs? And does anyone have any handy tips for increasing the humidity come hatching time?
My set up now is one big cardboard box with vent holes, inside is a small box with the eggs that takes up slightly less than half of the box, there is a round pie pan full of water with cotton rags in it to increase the surface area in the other half of the box, the whole thing is covered with glass coffee table inserts. There isn't much room for anything more, like a bigger pan or an extra sponge (unless it's a regular kitchen size sponge but I don't have anything to put it on so it doesn't soak the box).
Any hatching tips in general? It would also be great to hear any success stories from others who used home made incubators, I'm not feeling very optimistic about saving this clutch...
I rigged up a cardboard box incubator and I'm not having any trouble with temperature but I keep finding different information on what the humidity should be. One site says 82-86 wet bulb, in which case I should be ok, but another says 86-88 in which case I might have a problem since I can't seem to get the humidity up that high.
What should the humidity be for duck eggs? And does anyone have any handy tips for increasing the humidity come hatching time?
My set up now is one big cardboard box with vent holes, inside is a small box with the eggs that takes up slightly less than half of the box, there is a round pie pan full of water with cotton rags in it to increase the surface area in the other half of the box, the whole thing is covered with glass coffee table inserts. There isn't much room for anything more, like a bigger pan or an extra sponge (unless it's a regular kitchen size sponge but I don't have anything to put it on so it doesn't soak the box).
Any hatching tips in general? It would also be great to hear any success stories from others who used home made incubators, I'm not feeling very optimistic about saving this clutch...
