Monthly Archives: December 2013

I keep hearing about the need to manage the humidity level inside my incubator.  Why is that important? 

We hear this quite often and it’s actually a great question.

In nature, the mother bird does a really good job keeping the conditions of the egg just right so the fragile embryo inside can develop as it should.  One of these conditions is the moisture that the egg is exposed to.  In an egg incubator, we call this the "relative humidity" level.  Or just RH for short.    Let's mention just briefly what it's call "relative" humidity.    

Two of the main factors that affect the the amount of moisture the air can hold are temperature and atmospheric pressure.  It’s not easy to control the atmospheric pressure, but the temperature is something we try very hard to control in an incubator.  As the temperature goes up, the amount of water (or moisture) that the air can hold (in the form of vapor) goes up.  As the temperature falls, the amo

The second group moved to the brooder a couple days after the first. For a moment they were pecked at a bit, and huddled in the corner. However, after a few minutes they became braver and slowly came out and, by mimicing the older ducks, they learned to eat and drink. After about two days they were fully integrated with the other ducks and were overcoming the ‘two group’ idea.

      The ducklings grow very quickly. I have been shocked by how large they have become. As they grow so rapidly, they go through food and water very quickly. After about four days after the second group had been put in I was refilling the water 2 or 3 times a day. Before to long the water needed to be refilled every few hours. The food was being refilled every day. It didn’t take long for the small bag of food to run out. After some thought, I decided not to buy more-- I would make more.

      The food I make is a combination of several grains. Rye, wheat, dried corn, brown rice, and sometime