Duck Incubator too small for hatching?

[saundersfarm]

Hi.

This is our first time incubating duck eggs so we are very much newbies and grateful for websites/forums like these that have been our instructors so far. Today starts day 21 for our duck eggs(mallard types), I am starting to get myself ready for lockdown and am suddenly worried that there is not enough room in the incubator for the ducklings to hatch, if all goes as planned. The incubator holds 4 eggs upright, no room for them to lay at an angle or on their side, there are 4 eggs in the incubator (maybe that was a mistake, filling it to capacity. I am wondering if there will be enough room for them to hatch, or if I should be frantically making a DIY hatcher before lockdown starts?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I've overfilled my hatcher before (was a newbie, had unexpectedly good fertility with the eggs and ended up with 24 eggs in lockdown in a 24 egg capacity incubator) and it was a madhouse, so I know what you must be anticipating. From the angle, your incubator does look pretty small for 4 duck eggs, and waterfowl generally benefit from being laid on their sides to hatch (I'm not saying they can't hatch upright, just that it's not ideal). Is there room for them to actually get out of the egg in there? You definitely don't want to create any obstacles to them getting out, as it's already quite an ordeal.

If they can actually at least get out of the egg in the space available, you could wait until one or two have hatched and then quickly (and carefully!) remove them to a prepared brooder to give the remaining eggs more room. When I do that kind of transfer, I have a sprayer bottle on hand filled with warm water and spray a little into the opened incubator quickly and then shut immediately to keep the humidity levels up.

I think you're in the best position to determine if there's actually sufficient room for hatching, so go with your gut...but overcrowding makes a stressful time even more stressful, in my experience.

Best of luck with your hatch!

 

[saundersfarm]

Thank you so much for the advice. We have since been able to borrow an incubator from someone for lockdown which will give them plenty of room to be on their sides while hatching