Got an incubator!!!

[Crayonsmom]

It's been a long time since I've been on here. Well, they had some incubators on sale at TSC the other day when I was looking for a birthday present for my dad. So of course I couldn't resist! He really likes his present, and we want to try hatching a few ducklings. Our own ducks have never even tried sitting on their eggs. We're only getting 3 eggs a day at the most right now, and we don't know if they're getting fertilized or not... But I was wondering, is it ok to keep a few outside of the incubator for a bit until we get some more? The incubator directions said to keep eggs in a certain temp. (not refridgerated of course) until you put them in the incubator, but I'm not sure how long it's ok to do that. Is it ok if we only put 3 or 4 eggs in to begin with?

More questions:

How exactly am I supposed to turn the eggs? How do you turn yours? The directions weren't very specific. lol

Any helpful information/tips? We finally got the temperature stabilized, so we were plannign on putting in a few eggs soon. I suspect we'll have a few failures on our first go, but we have to start somewhere!

Thanks.

 

[Baralak]

Incubation can be a wonderful experience! You can also have good, bad, hard, problems that will arise. I must say that I'm glad to see that you are asking questions before you set your eggs.

First of all, it appears that you have already figured out how to operate your incubator. Which is the first step..

How to turn your eggs by hand is very easy. It will need to be done 3 times daily!!! The easiest way is to take a pencile and on one side of the egg write a great big X on the other side of the egg write a great big O. When turning your eggs all of the X's or O's should be showing.. for example you set your eggs with the X showing... When you turn you will turn them so that the O's are all up, next time you turn you will have all the X's up.

What type of duck eggs are you hatching?

Here is a wonderful article on incubation and hatching.

http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/incubation.pdf

 

[Crayonsmom]

Thanks so much!

The ducks are likely Khaki Campbells, but I believe our blue runner is male, and we have two male Pekins, so they could be some sort of odd mix. Three times a day for turning the eggs shouldn't be too bad. I was hoping it wasn't like every hour or something like that.

 

[kelseygirl707]

Yah, you can collet eggs for I would say up to a week, then put them all in at the same time.

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Quote:
X2

 

[rancher hicks]

Well I am happy for you. I also want to offer you a copy of an article on hatching from Practical Poultry magazine that you might want. Just pm my your e-mail and I can send it to you.

Again I hope everything goes well,

Rancher (i've offered this before to anyone who might want it)

 

[Crayonsmom]

That's great. I didn't knwo I could save up the eggs that long. What's the best way/place to keep them until they go into the incubator?

RH, I'll send you my email.