Hello, all sorry for the long absence again but it is just so hectic. The number one question at the moment is what are the settings for the rcom incubators for egg types.

I suggest the following settings for Duck, Geese and Chicken Eggs

Humidity 45% for all turning days and for the last two days (non-turning days) I suggest 62%, i have found these to give the best results overall.

I leave the temp setting at 37.5c throughout the whole incubation period.

I hope this helps.

Hi, I am sorry this problem seems to be high this season. Again I say this is mainly related to too much humidity in your incubator. It is great news that more people are incubating but there are three things you must get right :- Temp, Humidity and Hygiene. Control these three elements and with good fertile eggs you should get good results.

Ensure you use fresh eggs a good incubator (I recommend RCOM Incubators) and incubator disinfectant. Also remember too much humidity is much worse than too little.

40%-45% for the first 19 days 37.7c

60%-65% for the last 2 days 37.5c for hen eggs.

Clean eggs before setting in a good egg/incubator disinfectant. Ensure the water-disinfectant soultion is slightly warmer than the egg and give a gentle clean.

I have just written a comment on this one then also have had 2 emails with a similar question so i will add to the blog. - I have collected hatching eggs but they have got cold overnight to 2-3 degrees, are they any good? Well to be honest no, your fertile eggs are badly damaged. Saying that if you have space in the incubator put them in as there is a small chance they will hatch. Please ensure you candle the hatching eggs at day 7 or day 10 and remove the non developing fertile eggs and throw them away to avoid bacteria damaging the developing eggs.

I have had a question today as why when they put in 6 fertile eggs, after 23 days upon checking 1 was just a yolk and 5 were fully formed but did not hatch, what is the problem. I am afraid the problem is caused by too much humidity in the incubator, only 5 of the eggs were fertile eggs the other was a dud but of the 5 that did develop there was not enough loss inside the egg shell due to incubator humidity and with a chick developing to large it was unable to turn to break out of the shell. I would suggest a new batch of eggs and maybe 50% less water than the last incubation, ideally have the incubator have water in only every other day so 1 day in 2 it is dry. Then of course plenty of humidity for the last 2 days. I hope this helped you Peter