Incubating duck eggs

[Chicken7777]

Hello everyone. I have a pekin duck pair and the hen started laying about a week and a half ago and whats pretty funny and great is that she has laid an egg everday!! Well i havent ate any of the eggs but i am wanting to see if they are alive or dead. I made myself a candler out of wood with a light bulb inside but what i see is darknes on the sides of the egg. How can i tell if its dead or alive? I have my eggs out not in the refrigerator nor an incubator. Does this affect its hatching? I have heard of people puting eggs in the fridge and they still have them hatch....i want mines to hatch

Also how long does it take for pekin ducklings to hatch?

I have not yet bought an incubator but what would you guys reccomend for an incubator that holds many eggs, is efficient and for a reasonable price.....

Thank you!

 

[arabookworm]

I got a hovabator without the fan, and out of my 17 eggs, the 15 that weren't scrambled or infertile developed, and out of those 15, 14 hatched and are still healthy now, 2 weeks later, so if you want something affordable, hovabator is great.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Ok, in the first part of your post you said

I made myself a candler out of wood with a light bulb inside but what i see is darknes on the sides of the egg. How can i tell if its dead or alive?

If you are looking to see if they are fertile, the only way you can tell is by either incubating them or cracking one open and checking for the bullseye. You will not see anything in them by candling until they have been incubated for at least a few days.

The hovabator is a good incubator, and the LG is as well, but the LG is tricky, you have to get to know it. Both hold the same amount of eggs, with a turner they hold 41 eggs, and without about 60, depending on the size.

If you are wanting to hatch your eggs, it is better to not put them in the fridge. You do need to make sure that you turn them at least once a day before you set them. Also, after 10 of being laid, they loose a lot of their viability, meaning that your hatch rate goes down a lot.

Pekin ducks take 28 days from set to hatch. It is best to use at least 70% humidity during incubation, and 80-85% during the hatch (days 25-28).​

 

[Chicken7777]

Thank you soo much for the descriptive information i appreciated it!

I wanted to know though can only chicken and duck eggs be incubated in these incubators or can other eggs too, for example a goose egg?
Also what are the price ranges for both incubators and where can i buy them in stores(or do you think its better online?)
And which one of the two is much better through use?

Thank you much once again!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
You can incubate any eggs in these (except for maybe swan and emu

). The goose eggs in the LG need to be layed on their sides, but the hovabator has a turner for them.

Your best bet for a hovabator is probably online. Some feed stores sell them, but most, in my area anyway, sell the LG, and they don't even have them right now (I guess cause of the season change).

The both run about the same price, which is around $50 more or less. The hovabator is, from my understanding, real easy to adjust the temps in. The LG is very touchy, just the tiniest bump will make the temps skyrocket!! The LG's are not impossible, though. That's what I have, and it has worked pretty good for me. You just have to get used to them.

 

[Chicken7777]

Well i am thinking of buying a hoverator but i put a wanted ad in my crsigslist and luckily i am being offered a lg still air 9200 for $20.00 when they cost $59.00. Is this incubator a good one? Also i have heard of people havingtwo incubators one sepperatly for hatching. Why is that? Also what is the meaning of still air and other incubator terms Thank you

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
I use the LG, I think it works pretty good. The hovabator has more height to it, and it is easier to adjust the temps. The reason for having two incubators is to have staggered hatches, meaning that you have eggs set at all different dates. It is very hard to do that with only one bator, cause the hatching of the other eggs, higher humidity, and things can damage the eggs that are not due to hatch. The still air means that it has no fan, so the heat just kind of 'sits' in there. It is not recommended to incubate different sized eggs in the same incubator if it is still air, since the temperature for, say a goose egg, and the temp for a quail egg would be different, when they need the same temp. A forced air incubator has a fan in it.