[Centomodi]

Hi all I'm hoping someone can help,

I am currently on day 18 of incubating some call duck eggs and today when i took the eggs out onto a towel to cool down and spray with water as usual i stupidly lost track of time and accidentally left them out for 30 mins in room temp.

When i realised, before putting them back in I checked the temp of the eggs with an infrared temperature reader gun and they where still at 26 degrees normally after I spray them they drop to 24 degrees.

Will leaving them out for this long have a negative effect on them and is there anything I can do to help them?

The humidity is at 60-65 %

Temp 37.5 degrees

They are turned by an automatic egg Turner every two hours.

I started cooling and spraying at day 10.

[doganjo]

Why do you take them out of the incubator?  I never have with ducks.  It changes the  humidity - even opening it does that.  Is there not a humidity control on your incy?

I'd leave them without further attention - don't understand why you'd cool them either.

[Centomodi]

Hi doganjo

I let the eggs cool and then spray because allegedly it simulates the duck getting off the eggs and then coming back wet from being in water.

It's somthing i read and seen a few videos of. There is a digital display of humidity act. when i take the eggs out I put the lid back on the bator and let it return back to normal temp and humidity.

First time hatching any eggs so just trying to do what's best.

[bj_cardiff]

I started cooling and spraying at day 10.

I don't understand why you would want to cool the eggs or spray them??

[Centomodi]

This is a bit about it I found.

"It is a surprising fact that, although eggs must have very stable temperatures to incubate successfully, periodic cooling can be a good thing and far from harming the development of chicks, can actually lead to more successful hatching.

Bird breeders have known for many decades that eggs can be cooled for limited periods of time during incubation without causing problems but recent research has shown that hatch rates can actually increase significantly as a result of cooling.


Follow the link to read the full research paper on cooling eggs during incubation.

Cooling is an entirely natural process as most birds will get off the nest at least once a day and leave the eggs unheated for a significant time. From Brinsea’s 40 year experience, the best hatch rates are always achieved when the incubator can best mimic the natural nest conditions. For this reason Brinsea® have incorporated a cooling option in our Advance models of egg incubators for 2012.

Based on the results of the research paper above the user of an Ovation 28 Advance could expect one additional egg to hatch on average.

Brinsea's cooling feature turns the incubator’s heater and low temperature alarm off for a select period but keeps the fan running. After the cooling period is complete the incubator reverts to normal temperature and the alarm is automatically reset. The cooling function is optional and the user can select cooling periods of 60, 120, 180, 240, 300 and 360 minutes with fixed 24 hour intervals. The default setting is that cooling is set to off. This new function applies to the Advance and Advance EX versions of the Mini II, Maxi II, Ovation 28, Ovation 56, Ova-Easy 100, 190, 380 and 580 incubators. The cooling feature can also be found on the older Brinsea models of the Advance and EX versions of the Mini, Octagon® 20, Octagon® 40, Ova-Easy 190, 380 and 580 models"

https://www.brinsea.com/articles/news/cooling.aspx


Just wanted to know if anyone knew if 30 mins cooling was too much ? and if there was anything i could do to help the eggs if it was

[Eve]

They’ll be fine, don’t worry, 30 minutes isn’t much. My brinseas cool for 60 minutes and the hatching rate has been 90-95% for years now, and hens can leave the nest for longer. I don’t bother spraying them, though, but then chickens don’t get themselves wet like ducks do   

[doganjo]

Well there you go.     It's true that you learn something new every day  - even an old dog can learn new tricks