I would like to tell you my experience of hatching out abandon duck eggs from my Momma domestic Mallard duck. One duckling had hatched out over a week before. It was a Mallard. She was sitting on both Mallard and Rouen eggs. Drake Daddy killed that baby so I separated her from all of the other ducks. This upset her however and she eventually left the nest and just quacked running back and forth wanting to join the flock. I had no idea how far along the eggs were. They were cold to the touch and had not been sat on for at least 12 hours in low 50 degree weather. I made a homemade incubator. A reading light from my bedside with a 40 watt bulb attached to a small styrofoam cooler, two small towels in the bottom, a $2.00 thermometer, a coffee cup full of warm water. I turned the eggs 7 times a day. I watched the thermometer to make sure it was near 100 degrees and low and behold a week later I got a baby duck! Now another one is trying to hatch out and I had 6 eggs I had taken from the Rouen nest as I wanted Rouen babies. Daddy is a Mallard and one side of its face has two stripes and the other one stripe. I am hoping for a hen and it is doing just fine, eating and drinking just six hours after hatching and in the brooder. I am sure the experts will tell you I did everything wrong but it worked out right. Another one is trying to hatch and the eggs I took from the nest are developing. Good luck if you decide to try this method, It surely is working for me.
