hey, i got 4 duck eggs my father had off his mate but dont know how old thay are (there older than my 2 duck eggs) can i just keep the 4 older duck eggs in my bator till i hear them or till thay pip ? so ill still be turning my duck eggs and them older duck eggs 3 times a day the lid only stays open for about 20/30 secs everytime i turn them enyway will it be ok ? thanks ~Daniel~
If you set your ducks eggs 24 hours or less before now, you can give them a go. If not, if they have been in longer, I wouldn't. You have to up the humidity at the end and can cause problems for the newer eggs that aren't ready.
There's 3 ways you can stagger a hatch like this. The first involves an auto turner, which you don't have. The second involves a second incubator or other box you would use as a hatcher. If you can construct something closely resembling an incubator (a styrofoam cooler with a heat source and a water pan capable of keeping heat at 99.5 and humidity at I forget what it is for ducks off hand.... it's really high, like 80-90% if I recall) then you can move the 'lockdown' eggs there to hatch. The third involves a spray bottle of warm water. You can, in theory, keep the humidity up in the incubator by spraying in warm water in the 20-30 seconds you have the incubator open to turn. Since you have a very small number of eggs, you may be able to turn them and spritz the water in, and the humidity should climb back. It does in mine, anyway. Once you see pips in the 2 duck eggs you set 1st, leave the incubator closed. Of course this depends on how far apart your stagger is. If your 4 new eggs will go on lockdown the day the first 2 are set to hatch, it's a perfect stagger. You can leave the bator closed and not have to turn the lockdown eggs while the first ones are hatching. If it's any later, then you have a problem.
