Advice for incubating a single duck egg

[whutupribs]

Hi everybody. I'm here looking for a bit of advice, as I'm new to this whole thing. At work today, I found a single duck egg laying on the ground, nowhere near a nest. I was going to just leave it alone, but being that I'm a huge softie for animals, I couldn't help but try to save it. After a quick google search, I learned how to candle an egg, and from what I can tell, it seems healthy but doesn't look like it's begun incubating yet. Obviously I don't know for sure if it's fertile or not, but being that it's a wild duck egg in May, I'd think the chances are pretty good. Now I want to be clear that I'm in no way set up for this, i'm just working with what I have available to me. I know that the way I'm doing this is in no way ideal and that it's a long shot to say the least, but I have to at least try. Here's what I'm working with: I don't have an incubator. I do, however, have a pet bearded dragon whose tank has some extra space. I had an old bug cage, like those little plastic ones a kid might keep a caterpillar in. So I lined that with some rags, laid the egg in it, and put the top on. Then I put the little cage in my beardie's tank, right under one of his heat lamps. The temperature should stay right around 100 degrees directly under the lamp, and the humidity fluctuates between 50-65%. The beardie has no way of getting at the egg, and I keep his tank very clean.

So, all that being said, does anyone have any suggestions on how I can maximize the chances of this egg hatching, even though I'm using a completely improvised incubation setup? I could really use some pointers from people with experience in hatching ducks...

 

[Duck Lover88]

Why are you going to incubate a lone duck? To me this don't sound like a good idea… why don't you just trow the egg away or leave it?
It was probably laid by some passing by duck and I don't see why you would bring a critter in to the world that might not even survive…. and I know that you are trying to do the right thing but if you haven't already started incubating it and it ain't already "alive" the right thing would be to not even incubate it….
Also

@chickens really, @Miss Lydia
Do y'all have anything to say here?

 

[chickens really]

If it's fertile you will know in about 7 to 10 days.It will begin to get veins in the egg.
You need to turn the egg three times a day.
Not sure if it will hatch though..
Best wishes..