Duck Hatching Questions

[Sami-Duck]

Hi! I'm new, so I'm sorry if I'm asking stupid/repeat questions. I've been struggling to get specific enough answers to my questions, so I thought I'd join BC and ask the experts! Thank you in advance for your help!

Background: I look after the animals on a small farm. Someone gave us 4 ducks and now we have eggs! My boss bought an incubator and wants to make ducklings, but our previous two attempts were unsuccessful. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'm under pressure to get results. I've never owned ducks before, so I'm taking as much advice as I can.

1. My incubator is an 8 egg incubator, that turns automatically every hour and has a temperature control. It has no function for setting the humidity, although it has a water trough in the centre. What is the best way to control the humidity? How can I raise this toward the end of the hatching?

2. Should I wash the eggs before they go in the incubator? I've heard some really mixed advice - that it's important to wash them to remove the bacteria, but also that its bad to wash them because the eggs have a special membrane that makes them impermeable to germs, which gets destroyed in the washing process.

3. I know I need to candle the eggs to see their progress, but the incubator manual says not to open it at all until the eggs are done on day 28. This feels wrong, as I need to refill the water tank, but how long and often is it okay to have the incubator open for? I don't want to kill the eggs by letting them go cold.

4. What can be done with the unfertile eggs removed from the incubator after candling? My boss wants to eat them, he hates wastage.

5. What specifically should I be doing on day 26 to prepare the eggs for hatching? I've heard that I need to keep the incubator on lockdown, but I'm unsure.

6. Is it okay to have a rolling program of eggs going through the incubator? For example, we put 8 eggs in, candle them at day 7 and remove the infertile ones, and then (my boss' idea) we replace those four with new ones. Is it okay? Will the eggs put in later be affected by the changes in humidity if they are not get ready to hatch?

Thank you for your help! Already, I have learnt so much from this website, so thank you kindly in advance for your help!!

 

[Pyxis]

I think this article will answer most of your questions:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-beginners-guide-to-incubation.73350/

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I would not attempt to eat an egg that has been incubated for a few days
That wouldn't be a good idea. Incubator temperatures are set at the perfect temperature to grow bacteria. You *could* replace infertile ones with new ones. . .but after you read the above article you will see how that becomes a challenge due to increased humidity at hatch time for your first round. It is doable. . but a little risky for the later ones you add.
As far as opening your incubator . . sure, you don't wanna be opening it all the time for no good reasons. . but think about mama duck. She gets up and eats drinks and swims daily leaving her nest. So as long as your not leaving it open for hours or anything it should be fine to get in there and do what you need to do. Be Mindful to have clean hands when handling eggs though.. Germs can enter the shell.

 

[Quacking Pigeon]

Hi! I'm new, so I'm sorry if I'm asking stupid/repeat questions. I've been struggling to get specific enough answers to my questions, so I thought I'd join BC and ask the experts! Thank you in advance for your help!

Background: I look after the animals on a small farm. Someone gave us 4 ducks and now we have eggs! My boss bought an incubator and wants to make ducklings, but our previous two attempts were unsuccessful. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'm under pressure to get results. I've never owned ducks before, so I'm taking as much advice as I can.

1. My incubator is an 8 egg incubator, that turns automatically every hour and has a temperature control. It has no function for setting the humidity, although it has a water trough in the centre. What is the best way to control the humidity? How can I raise this toward the end of the hatching?

2. Should I wash the eggs before they go in the incubator? I've heard some really mixed advice - that it's important to wash them to remove the bacteria, but also that its bad to wash them because the eggs have a special membrane that makes them impermeable to germs, which gets destroyed in the washing process.

3. I know I need to candle the eggs to see their progress, but the incubator manual says not to open it at all until the eggs are done on day 28. This feels wrong, as I need to refill the water tank, but how long and often is it okay to have the incubator open for? I don't want to kill the eggs by letting them go cold.

4. What can be done with the unfertile eggs removed from the incubator after candling? My boss wants to eat them, he hates wastage.

5. What specifically should I be doing on day 26 to prepare the eggs for hatching? I've heard that I need to keep the incubator on lockdown, but I'm unsure.

6. Is it okay to have a rolling program of eggs going through the incubator? For example, we put 8 eggs in, candle them at day 7 and remove the infertile ones, and then (my boss' idea) we replace those four with new ones. Is it okay? Will the eggs put in later be affected by the changes in humidity if they are not get ready to hatch?

Thank you for your help! Already, I have learnt so much from this website, so thank you kindly in advance for your help!!

3. You should check the eggs after the first week and chuck out the infertile and dead egg (Do not eat them). Also depending on your type of incubator it is sometimes good to keep it open for a while like how the mother duck would leave her nest from time to time.

4. It’s not good to eat old eggs especially if they’ve been incubated.

5. On lockdown the eggs are to be taken out of the turner and placed on their side and do not get turned due to the ducklings setting into position to hatch.

6. It will effect the hatch rate due to that the eggs on the last few days need to be put on a flat surface and not turned.

I never have luck hatching eggs so I let my muscovies hatch them, even though they don’t always have a good hatch rate.

 

[Sami-Duck]

Thank you so much everyone for your helpful links and suggestions! I'll be sure to pay your kindness forward!

I'm not very good at understanding things accurately, so I'd just like to check back over what I've learned from this to make sure I didn't make a mistake. Please correct me if I misunderstood!

1. Humidity is controlled the surface area of water we have. We should get a hygrometer to measure this, but if the troughs are not enough, we can use moist tissue paper to increase the humidity.

2. You shouldn't set dirty eggs.

3. I'm okay to open the incubator, but not for no reason.

4. Don't let my boss eat incubated eggs! (I'm sorry for asking this, haha)

5. On day 25, stop turning the eggs so the ducklings can get in position for hatching.

6. Not a good idea.

Another question though: the instruction manual of the incubator says to set the temperature at 38.5 celsius/101.3 Fahrenheit, is this too high?

Once again, thank you so much for your help! I'm sure I'll be asking a lot more questions, but I'll post some pictures of the ducklings if/when they hatch!